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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29314965">The Rockrose and the Thistle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapRosinante/pseuds/CapRosinante'>CapRosinante</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Disabled Character, Gen, I know next to nothing about Japanese Sign Language, I'm gonna change the tags if I manage to pull it around again, I've never done this before, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Hard, also side characters as plot devices, and an accidental identity reveal to complete the intended one, and it kind of went from there, but i try, but so far the burn is so slow it's gonna need a sequel sooo, now featuring mild swearing, or Japanese Elementary Schools, the basic idea of this was 'what if Kaito had a brother', this was supposed to become Kaishin at some point</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:14:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,583</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29314965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapRosinante/pseuds/CapRosinante</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Conan couldn't sleep. Too much was bearing on his mind the weird way KID had acted on his last heist. But all his questions seemed to get resolved when, shortly after, a familiar teenager introduced an unfamiliar child to Conan's elementary school class. Except it... doesn't really clear up anything at all, now, does it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>89</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, uh. Hi? </p>
<p>I've been writing this for months. And here it finally is, thanks to my almost paralysing anxiety about this being so much worse than I think.<br/>Fair warnings:<br/>- I started writing this before even remotely catching up with the current story, so, uh, don't expect it to involve later characters too much.<br/>- English isn't my first language,<br/>- I don't have a beta, and related<br/>- I haven't written fic in, like, a decade, and never before in English, sooo. I'm sorry if things sound wonky. Please do feel free to let me know if something doesn't make any sense at all.<br/>Oh and also,<br/>- title from The Amazing Devil's "The Rockrose and the Thistle" because I love them too much.</p>
<p>So, uh. Enjoy? (Please?)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Conan couldn't sleep.</p>
<p>This, in itself, was admittedly not exactly peculiar. He'd had trouble falling asleep even before he had become Conan in the first place, and since, it hadn't gotten any better for him. It didn't even help that his tiny body still fatigued faster than he liked, and did, indeed, need more sleep.</p>
<p>What was peculiar, however, even to him, was what he was losing sleep over.</p>
<p>Kaitou KID's last heist had been two days ago, and it had been too easy. The note, delivered to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police HQ by a personal courier that had left as quickly as they had appeared, had been so obvious, even Mouri had figured it out correctly by himself: The heist had taken place fairly close by the detective agency, at eight pm, on a Saturday, aimed at some small diamond in the possession of a local jewelry.</p>
<p>It had felt suspiciously much like KID had done everything he could to ensure Conan could and would be there. He had missed the previous heist only a few weeks prior, due to it taking place at midnight in the middle of the week. Ran had spent the entire night around Conan to make sure he wouldn’t be able to sneak out.</p>
<p>The heist itself had felt rushed; KID had appeared, taken the diamond from the severely underprepared owner of the jewelry, and had disappeared again, without any grand schemes, almost no flourishes. No pranks.</p>
<p>And when Conan had found KID in an empty storage room on the second floor of the building, rather than on the roof where Nakamori had expected him, KID had seemed uncharacteristically serious.</p>
<p>Not that KID wasn't always serious; but he was so with a smirk, a playful tease on his lips, and a seemingly relaxed posture. Usually with his cape whirling behind him dramatically, just for the theatrics of it.</p>
<p>When Conan had found KID that day, he'd been in dark street clothes, with a baseball cap shadowing his face as he sat on the windowsill to read through several documents in the sparse light the almost set sun provided.</p>
<p>KID had held up a hand, then, when Conan had entered, as though to say, <em>give me a second</em>. And Conan had stopped.</p>
<p>"Meitantei," KID had said, quietly, somewhat distracted, as he had dropped his empty hand to hold the papers in place. He had scribbled something on the bottom of the documents, had rolled them together, and had put them on the inside pocket of his plain jacket before finally turning to face Conan.</p>
<p>"I have a question," he had continued, and against the dim light coming through the window behind him, with the baseball cap pulled low into his face, Conan hadn't been able to make out any expression KID may have given.</p>
<p>"Say, is it true you know sign language?"</p>
<p>Conan had honestly startled. KID's own hands had been in the pockets of his dark jeans as he asked, and hadn't moved from there, and Conan had instantly tried to recall every other moment of the night's heist. He tried to recall what KID's hands had done the few moments around when the diamond was stolen; he hadn't signed something, had he? Conan had had his eyes on KID most of the time, until he had determined where KID would escape to, and he hadn't seen anyone else--</p>
<p>KID had let out something like a faint chuckle that had sounded more like a tired sigh, and Conan had focused on him again.</p>
<p>"Can I take that as a yes?" he had asked, and Conan still didn't know what had compelled him to reply. To say <em>yes, but why</em>, like he had actually expected to get an answer.</p>
<p>He hadn't gotten one. In a gush of wind, the window behind KID had opened, and he had fallen backwards out of it and had disappeared, just like that.</p>
<p>Conan had known there'd be no use, but he'd run up to the window anyway, had pulled himself onto the sill, and had stared out after him.</p>
<p>There had been, of course, no trace.</p>
<p>It had been two days, and Conan was still mulling it over.</p>
<p>He had seen no one making even vague signs with their hands at the heist, neither KID himself nor any potential accomplices. So he started going back. Pulled memories of past heists, past times he had encountered KID even outside of the specific settings the thief had set. Anything. But he couldn't recall a time any kind of sign language might have been involved, neither Japanese nor any other one Conan would be able to recognize.</p>
<p>Conan sighed to himself, inaudible over Kogoro's snoring in the bed next to his, and resigned himself to another night spent thinking over past cases, trying to remember anything he might have missed.</p>
<p>This went on for another week, and Conan was <em>so </em> tired.</p>
<p>Ran picked up on it first, her protective instincts ever honed on him. She offered to make him tea, made Kogoro sleep on the couch in the office downstairs, and tried to talk to him several times when nothing seemed to help. She asked about nightmares, about school, about his friends. Conan, of course, couldn't give any useful replies. No one knew he had let KID go that night, despite having had a chance to try and stop him; no one even knew they had met.</p>
<p>So all Conan could offer Ran were excuses that grew weaker by the day, about how he had just gotten to think about a lot lately, or the like.</p>
<p>It all came down on him on Monday morning, a bit over a week after KID's last heist.</p>
<p>Conan's patience was wearing thin; the Shounen Tantei-dan, of course, had picked up on his ever-growing weariness, and were just as worried as Ran about it. They prodded him all the way to school, with Ayumi offering hugs, Mitsuhiko trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for his lack of sleep and what might help him, and Genta offering to have a stern talk with whichever classmate was giving him a hard time.</p>
<p>Conan was about to snap when Haibara, as they swapped their street shoes for their school shoes, leaned in, saying <em>Kudou-kun</em> not as a question, but in that conspiring tone of hers as though she already knew everything that was going on.</p>
<p>He all but glared at Haibara, though, and hurried into their classroom, to get to his seat and wait for his blissfully boring class to start; except he barely even got as much as through the door.</p>
<p>Ayumi bumped into him when he stopped in his tracks, but he didn't care too much and didn’t reply to her worried “Conan-kun…?” behind him; his eyes caught on the teenager standing in front of the blackboard, dressed in Teitan High School's uniform, with a polite smile on his face as he exchanged some words with their teacher. The teenager's eyes, halfway hidden behind an unruly mess of dark hair, snapped over to Conan the moment he appeared in the doorway. And Conan just stopped.</p>
<p>He had never actually seen KID's face completely unobstructed before, but a monocle or the shadow of a base cap could only hide so much. </p>
<p>Still, somehow, the instant recognition that flickered through him didn't quite feel right.</p>
<p>What would KID even be doing here, in Conan's elementary school; his class, even? What kind of plot was this going to be?</p>
<p>"Good morning, Conan-kun," his teacher said, then, pulling him out of his thoughts, when she noticed him. "Come here for a moment, please."</p>
<p>Conan could feel Haibara's eyes boring into the back of his head when he took a deep breath, put on a carefully neutral face, and went to join his teacher.</p>
<p>Around her desk, hidden as much as he could behind the teenager's - KID's - legs, Conan was surprised to find yet another, this time completely unknown face. A boy, roughly his height and the age to fit in with the rest of the class, with black hair as messy as the teenager's and bright green eyes wet with unshed tears, was clinging to KID's uniform pants with all his might, looking at him like a deer caught in headlights.</p>
<p>Conan frowned.</p>
<p>"Conan-kun," his teacher said then, smiling down at him with that strained, somewhat forced smile she often seemed to wear when she had to deal with one of her strangely mature-acting and scarily smart top students. "Conan-kun, this is Kuroba Kenichi," she continued, gesturing at the terrified boy, "He will join our class from today on. And his brother Kaito-kun here" - she waved a hand at KID, who was still wearing that politely fake smile himself - "says you know sign language? You see, Kenichi-kun here can't speak, so he needs someone to translate."</p>
<p>Conan blinked, dumbfounded. He looked from the boy, up at KID, and back at the boy. Something in his brain clicked together.</p>
<p>
  <em>Ah.</em>
</p>
<p>"Conan-kun?" his teacher asked carefully after a few seconds. Conan turned to look at her.</p>
<p>"...ah," he voiced his eloquent thoughts as he had to hold back a sarcastic bite at KID, and added with an all-too cheery laugh in his voice, "Yes, I do. Know sign language. I can translate."</p>
<p>Kenichi's hands seemed to relax around KID's leg, and when Conan looked up at him, KID himself let out a sigh that seemed all too relieved. Still, his laugh died as quickly as it had come, and Conan asked, "How did you know?"</p>
<p>KID eyed him for barely a moment, before he dislodged Kenichi completely from his leg and crouched down to their height.</p>
<p>"You probably don't remember me," he said with a smirk only for Conan to see, but loud enough for the teacher to hear. Conan glared at him, just as hidden, but paused for a moment. </p>
<p>From up close, KID looked nothing but tired; the dark bags under his eyes were barely concealed, and even his smirk seemed like it took effort. There was no actual bite in it, no playfulness, and no arrogance. "We've met a few years ago when you were still just a toddler; my mother is a friend of your parents'. They let us know where to enroll Ken-chan. You've grown quite a bit since then, haven't you."</p>
<p>When KID turned to the little boy with him, then, his grin melted into something softer, much more genuine, Conan noted in honest surprise. "So," he said, tilting his head. "Will you be okay, Ken-chan? I'll come get you after school, okay?"</p>
<p>The little boy looked unsure for a few moments. He was holding onto the straps of his backpack as though for dear life, but he finally nodded his head in determined confirmation.</p>
<p>"Good," KID smiled, and got back up. He said his goodbyes to the teacher, Conan and finally Kenichi, and then, rather hurriedly, left the classroom.</p>
<p>Conan hesitated for all but three seconds, before hastily giving a haphazard apology and running back out into the corridor.</p>
<p>To his surprise, KID was still there.</p>
<p>"Wait," Conan called, and KID stilled. He sighed, and turned around to face him.</p>
<p>He looked so very tired.</p>
<p>"What are you planning?" Conan asked, his voice low as he caught up the few steps KID had made it down the hallway. There were only a handful of other children still around, and none of them spared them more than a curious glance. "A generic given name and the family name of a famous magician don't exactly make for the best disguise, you know. I would've expected more of you."</p>
<p>There was a pause. KID stared at him blankly, and Conan stared back. </p>
<p>And then, KID visibly deflated. He sighed again.</p>
<p>"I'll let my mother know you disapprove of her choice of my <em>generic name</em>," he said, resigned, and turned to leave again.</p>
<p>Conan frowned. That... wasn't exactly what he had expected.</p>
<p>He quickly caught up to KID again, rounded him, and came to a stop in front of him.</p>
<p>"What do you want from me? Why plant a spy in my class?"</p>
<p>"By <em>God</em>," KID muttered to himself before Conan had even finished, exasperatedly running a hand down his face. Abruptly, he was leaning down to Conan's height again. His voice was low when he continued, nothing more than a dangerous whisper that Conan had never heard from him before. "<em>Listen.</em> I will admit I could've found a better way to ask for your help, but it wasn't like I had any time to spare to figure out how to contact you properly. He’s just a child; one that doesn't have any friends, so you and those other children you surround yourself with, you’re my only chance, okay?</p>
<p>"I'm not asking you to help <em>me</em>, specifically, here. I'm asking you to give a lonely child a chance. So <em>please</em>.” </p>
<p>Conan could only stare as KID huffed then, and got up. “And now, if you’ll excuse me,” he continued, his voice going back to a normal volume. “I have my own class to join, too." </p>
<p>KID stepped around Conan and down the corridor without another look back. This time, Conan chose not to follow.</p>
<p>None of this made any sense to him.</p>
<p>Conan made it back to class shortly before the lesson started. Haibara raised an eyebrow at him from her seat next to Genta, and Conan needed a few moments to put together why she was sitting there. In her previous place, next to his own, sat Kenichi, miserably staring down at his hands in his lap. He jumped when Conan slumped down on his chair next to him, but didn't even look up then.</p>
<p>Class began, and it was very much as boring as Conan had anticipated. Only that now, with his mind off the wonderings why KID had asked him for his ability to read sign, he was now free to try and figure out what exactly it was KID was trying to do.</p>
<p>By midday, Conan had not figured out anything helpful. For all intents and purposes, Kenichi seemed very much like a perfectly normal, albeit quiet, 7-year-old. His reading and writing abilities seemed more advanced than usual, but, as Haibara pointed out with a quiet huff over lunch, so were Mitsuhiko's. Who had, lacking knowledge of sign language, held an entire written, albeit short, conversation with Kenichi, even though he was aware that the boy's hearing was fine.</p>
<p>"It's good exercise," he argued, and Conan couldn't even really fault him for it. Not while he was still trying to find anything acceptably suspicious about Kenichi other than the fact that the boy was determinedly not looking at him at all.</p>
<p>What advanced knowledge Kenichi had in Japanese, he lacked in math, Conan found out during their last class for the day. After he had half-heartedly filled out his worksheet in the manner of minutes, he had turned back to watch his new neighbor, and had found the boy struggling over the second problem in front of him.</p>
<p>Conan watched him for almost a minute before taking pity. He sighed to himself, and scooted his chair closer to Kenichi's. Kenichi startled badly, and looked at him with those big, terrified eyes.</p>
<p>"You need help?" Conan asked in a way he hoped sounded friendly. He figured that he had been acceptable enough when Kenichi hesitantly nodded his head.</p>
<p>So Conan did help him; explaining very basic math with a patience he didn't actually know he still possessed while Kenichi listened with a thoughtful frown on his young face. By the end of class, the boy carefully nodded his newfound understanding, and slowly signed out <em>thank you</em> at him.</p>
<p>Conan blinked dumbly at him, saying "no problem" without even thinking about it, and for the first time, Kenichi smiled a small smile at him.</p>
<p>Reluctantly, Conan's view shifted from <em>he's definitely some kind of spy</em> to <em>he may actually just be a child</em>.</p>
<p>The Shounen Tantei-dan, unsurprisingly and minus Haibara, who had spent most of her time glaring at the back of Kenichi's head as though he had some deep dark secrets written there only for her to see, had taken an instant liking to Kenichi over the course of only this one day. They did like to collect unusual friends, after all, and with Kenichi more or less bound to Conan (as the only one who knew sign) or Mitsuhiko (as the most advanced reader in class other than Conan and Haibara) to communicate, there didn't seem to be much question of whether or not they would spend the afternoon together.</p>
<p>That was, at least, until Conan stopped in the middle of the school's door as all six of them stepped out and spotted a familiar teenager standing by the yard's gate.</p>
<p>"Oh!" Ayumi called, recognizing the tall figure as the one that had brought Kenichi to school that day. She turned to the boy in question. "Is he your big brother?"</p>
<p>Kenichi looked at her for a moment, and opened his mouth as though to answer. Conan frowned, and watched him close his mouth and nod his head.</p>
<p>Ayumi didn't hesitate to excitedly bound over to where KID was standing, followed closely by Genta, Mitsuhiko and Kenichi himself.</p>
<p>"So, who <em>is</em> that guy? You know him, right?" Haibara's voice came from Conan's side, where she had stopped next to him. She didn't look at him, but at their friends and the teenager instead; she looked like she knew she was trying to figure out a puzzle she didn't have all the parts to.</p>
<p>Conan heaved a heavy sigh. He watched KID lower himself to one knee, watched him grin as he conjured up a pink rose from nowhere, and watched him handing it to a visibly excited Ayumi.</p>
<p>"I do, but it's not my secret to tell," Conan muttered, defeated, and slowly made to join his friends.</p>
<p>Halfway across the yard, Ayumi suddenly ran up to him, waving her rose at him excitedly. Conan realized that it had its thorns carefully trimmed off. "Look!" she called, grabbing Conan's hand with her free one and pulled him towards where KID was still kneeling. Conan didn't fight back. "Kenichi-kun's brother is a magician!" she explained, waving her rose again for good measure. "He just, poof! Had a rose in his hand! And he gave it to me!"</p>
<p>They came to a stop next to Genta, who had just picked a card from KID's hands.</p>
<p>"Did he now," Conan said, and he didn't have it in him to even try to sound surprised.</p>
<p>"Okay," Genta was saying, staring intently at the card he held as close to his face as possible. "Okay, I got it." He put his card back between the rest of the deck between KID's hands. KID pushed them together, and the cards disappeared.</p>
<p>Both Genta and Mitsuhiko let out a startled gasp; Conan raised an eyebrow as he looked at KID's now empty hands. He barely caught KID beaming at him, specifically, before he turned back to the children in front of him.</p>
<p>"How?" Genta asked in a whisper, before Ayumi caught their attention again.</p>
<p>"They're in your sleeve, right?" she asked, staring at KID's hands with a frown on her tiny face. KID smiled at her and held out both of them out to her.</p>
<p>"Do you want to check?" he said, and Ayumi blinked at him. She hesitated, but then nodded and KID waited patiently for her to put her rose behind her ear, and get to work on his sleeves. She patted them up and down first, almost methodically, before pushing her small hands into the space between KID's shirt and his bare arms. She hummed thoughtfully when she withdrew again, and went to push up his sleeves anyway.</p>
<p>"Huh," Ayumi said to herself, not finding anything.</p>
<p>By her side, Conan sighed. "They're in his pocket," he said flatly, stepped forward, and unceremoniously pushed his hand into the pocket of KID's blazer. KID laughed, sounding surprised, and feigned almost getting knocked out of balance, but let it happen when Conan pulled a perfect stack of cards from his pocket.</p>
<p>Conan muttered "I thought you'd be above petty card tricks" under his breath, but it went largely unheard over the Shounen Tantei-dan's sounds of amazement, and he chose to outright ignore the bright smile KID gave them for it.</p>
<p>"Looks like I was found out," KID was saying-  laughing, really, and Conan realized that this wasn't what KID usually sounded like. KID laughed a lot, sure enough, at the police, or at him, or just to himself because he could, but he never sounded like <em>this</em>. Conan couldn't quite put a finger on the difference, though. He was too caught up wondering why KID would put on a pretend laugh in front of an audience of elementary schoolers, and it made his stomach turn.</p>
<p>"Hey, maybe you should check your pocket too, Genta-kun," KID said, then, winking at the boy, and Genta did - and pulled out the card he had held up earlier from the front pocket of his pants. Genta almost dropped it in surprise, sputtering as both Mitsuhiko and Ayumi attached themselves to either of his sides to look at the card, too. Reflexively, Conan turned over the deck of cards he still held in his hands, and started looking through them. The Eight of Diamonds Genta was holding was, indeed, missing from it. </p>
<p>"How did you do that!" Ayumi called, amazed, and it wasn't quite a question, so KID didn't quite answer.</p>
<p>"Magic," he simply said, still smiling at his tiny audience. He got up, then, and, dusting his pants off, turned to Kenichi, who had a small smile on his face too. "We should be going now."</p>
<p>The Shounen Tantei-dan, instantly and in unison, broke into protest. </p>
<p>"Already?" Ayumi whined, the same moment Mitsuhiko said "But we wanted to spend the day with Kenichi-kun!"</p>
<p>KID, Conan noted with a kind of smug satisfaction, startled at that, and raised his hands in defense.</p>
<p>"Ah, I'm sorry," he offered mildly, "Kenichi and I have an appointment today, we can't skip that. But how about this: Tomorrow after school, I'll invite all of you to some ice cream, hm?"</p>
<p>The children’s faces, including Kenichi's, lit up at that, while Conan could barely hold back a sigh. The thought of having to spend an afternoon with KID of all people was wrenching something in his chest, but he was too tired to think up a valid reason that would convince the Shounen Tantei-dan to decline. And he would absolutely not leave them alone with the Kaitou KID if he could help it. </p>
<p>They went their separate ways, then. KID and Kenichi waved their goodbyes and left after Genta made KID promise to definitely keep that offer up, and the rest of them went to the nearby park.</p>
<p>When Conan made it home that afternoon, he found Kogoro reading through the newspaper over a can of beer while Ran was preparing dinner for them. </p>
<p>"So, how was your day?" Ran asked carefully when Conan joined her in the kitchen. When Conan sighed, she turned to him, a worried frown on her face that she had been wearing for a few days now. </p>
<p>"We got a new classmate," Conan said, not looking back at her. He rubbed at his tired eyes under his glasses. "He's nice, so far, but he can't speak, so Kobayashi-sensei has me translate his sign language." Not that he had needed to translate anything all day; Kenichi hadn't said anything at all, except for that one, hesitant, <em>thank you</em>. </p>
<p>"Oh," Ran said, as though in thought, and Conan felt like he heard her unsaid <em>I didn't know you knew sign</em>, too. </p>
<p>(In a stray thought he wondered whether Ran knew that <em>Shinichi</em> knew sign language.)</p>
<p>In the silence that followed, only broken by Ran stirring in the pot she turned back to, Conan could see her trying to find the right words to ask him, once again, what was going on with him. He could feel the worry that stiffened her entire posture almost radiate off her, and Conan felt terrible about it. He hated worrying her, but what was he to say.</p>
<p>Ran paused, then, for a second stilling her hand as she looked up. "Oh!" she said again, but this time in realization. She turned to Conan, who blinked at her in surprise. "The boy's name, is it Kuroba?"</p>
<p>Conan blinked again.</p>
<p>"...yes?" he said carefully, "How did you--" </p>
<p>Realization struck again, and Conan stopped. Oh no.</p>
<p>KID had been in a Teitan High uniform. He looked to be about his and Ran's age. He had mentioned going to his own class.</p>
<p>Oh <em>no</em>.</p>
<p>"His brother Kaito transferred to my class today!" Ran said in that sort of forced bright tone she had adopted lately in an attempt to cheer him up, and confirmed Conan's terrible suspicion with it. "What are the odds!"</p>
<p><em>What indeed</em>, Conan didn't say, and buried his face in his hands.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Two additional things to my previous warnings:<br/>- the movies are not canon for this fic even if by now I've seen all but one of them. <em>However</em> up until yesterday I was entirely convinced that the scene where Ayumi meets KID on her balcony from The Last Wizard of the Century was actually some time in canon. So yeah.<br/>- I honestly don't remember if Conan has ever canonically ordered and gotten actual coffee. But I think I'd be really weird (and unhealthy) for a scrawny 7-year-old to drink coffee, and so, everyone in this fic does, too.<br/>(- also yes. I love putting things in brackets.)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next day found Conan, to his own surprise, much more relaxed than before. He had excused himself to bed early, and had, through the closed bedroom door, listened to Ran quietly voice her worries about Conan’s insomnia and his silence about it to her father. Kogoro had, surprisingly, shared her concerns, and had offered to talk to a psychologist friend of his. He'd then resigned himself to sleeping on the couch downstairs again, for the fourth night in a row, but the first time without a token complaint.</p><p>And then Conan had, despite himself, fallen asleep. </p><p>On his way to school, the Shounen Tantei-dan instantly noticed his much less grumpy demeanor and the much livelier color of his face, and they almost doubled over with voicing their relief. Conan couldn't quite suppress his smile at that. He knew they were good kids, even if they did drive him closer to insanity sometimes. </p><p>Kenichi, however, Conan found when they entered class a bit later, looked every bit as intimidated again as he had the day before, and Conan realized that they might have gotten off on the wrong foot. He wasn't convinced that this wasn't some long-winded, terrible scheme KID had come up with to get the upper hand on him for <em>whatever</em>, but there was still an off chance that this child really was just that. A child.</p><p>(He determinedly chose to push away the other lingering possibility Haibara had offered: Maybe the boy’s brother was part of <em>them</em>. Maybe this was a scheme to get close to not Edogawa Conan, but Kudou Shinichi, and, by proxy, Miyano Shiho. </p><p>Conan, for his part, just couldn't and didn't want to imagine it. He had opinions about KID, sure, and none of them were flattering, but him being a part of the Organization that was out to murder them? It just felt off. </p><p>Not to mention that KID would have had several opportunities to kidnap and/or murder him before, none of which he had taken up on. </p><p>He said none of that. Instead he shook his head, muttered, “I don’t think so,” and left it at that.)</p><p>Conan decided to try and make an effort that day. When the Shounen Tantei-dan crowded around their desk in their breaks, Conan too joined in, and Kenichi slowly but visibly relaxed. Mitsuhiko had brought an empty notebook for him to write in, but as it was mostly the kids talking, writing quickly became too slow for their collective patience and need for their new friend to reply, so Kenichi hesitantly switched over to signing instead. </p><p>(Most of the rest of the class spent the breaks fascinatedly watching Kenichi move about his hands, Conan translating his words, and Kenichi nodding his head in agreement. No one else approached them, however - there was an unspoken agreement not to interfere with the Shounen Tantei-dan unless absolutely necessary.)</p><p>The smile Kenichi wore for the rest of the day was a much better look on his young face, Conan decided. </p><p>The closer to the end of classes for the day came, the more excited the Shounen Tantei-dan grew, with the offer of ice cream and getting to spend the rest of the day with Kenichi and his brother. Conan was certain the classroom had never been this clean this quickly before when they finally left school.</p><p>As promised, KID was waiting for them by the yard's gate. </p><p>He looked a bit better himself today, Conan noticed. Though still tired, he looked much less tense. The smile he gave the children in greeting looked genuine, making his eyes crinkle in a way they never had at a heist Conan had attended. The early afternoon sun seemed to give them an entirely different, warmer color than the moonlight ever could. </p><p>Conan frowned, and shook his head in an attempt to clear it.</p><p>"Good day," KID greeted when they were close enough to hear, and bowed down deeply to them. When he came back up, and the children were in front of him, a lilac-colored rose appeared in each of his hands. He offered one to Ayumi and one to Haibara. </p><p>Ayumi all but squealed in delight as she took it, while Haibara eyed hers suspiciously. KID looked at her with a frown.</p><p>"You don't like flowers?" he asked carefully, twirling the rose between his fingers. </p><p>"I don't like <em>roses</em>," Haibara replied coolly, and walked past him without another look. KID looked after her, and for a moment, Conan swore he looked sad as he muttered a quiet "oh". </p><p>He turned the rose over once more, and it vanished from his hand. </p><p>From his other side, Mitsuhiko tugged on his sleeve and beckoned him closer. "I'm sorry," he told KID quietly. "Haibara-san isn't much of a people's person, but I promise, she's a good friend."</p><p>KID offered a smile in return. "It's fine," he said and waved his hand dismissively. "Thank you for letting me know, though."</p><p>"Alright then," he addressed the children at large, then, getting up from his crouched down position again. "You guys lead the way to a good place for ice cream."</p><p>The Shounen Tantei-dan cheered, and led the way.</p><p>The café of their choice wasn't far from school, and the children weren't exactly unknown to the staff. Conan noticed with a snicker he couldn't quite suppress the sympathetic looks KID was given when they entered, and the confusion this brought the teenager when he was pulled towards a particular booth in the back of the café that was barely big enough to hold all of them.</p><p>(They did end up pulling a chair over when Haibara refused to wrap herself around Ayumi to fit onto the bench with her, Mitsuhiko and Genta, and there wasn't any more space next to KID, Kenichi and Conan on the other one, either.)</p><p>Two menus for them to share were brought, and KID whistled quietly to himself at the broad selection of sundaes, cold and warm drinks and coffees. His choice was still a quick one, though, and it was only a few moments before he handed his menu to Kenichi to look at it. As KID looked up, he found the three children on the other side of the table already looking back at him. </p><p>"...I take it you guys already know what you want?" he laughed, as the menu they had gotten to share had already made its way to Haibara. </p><p>Genta nodded enthusiastically, and all three of them recounted their favorite sundaes one after the other in what Conan knew for a fact was not the first time. After them, Haibara added, "I'll just have some jasmine tea,” when KID looked at her expectantly. He then turned to look at Conan with that same expression. </p><p>Conan frowned. "I'll just have some black coffee," he muttered before he could stop himself, and then quickly backpedaled when both KID and Haibara raised an eyebrow at him. "Ah! I mean, ah, a hot chocolate!" he said, louder and overtly cheery, though the expression was nowhere near genuine and faded away quickly. </p><p>KID looked at him a moment longer, with that same blank expression now he had worn the day before, when they had spoken in the school hallway and Conan felt trapped, suddenly, even though he was sitting on the edge of the bench they shared. But as quickly as it had come, it was gone again, and KID turned to Kenichi to ask for his order, which Kenichi gave by pointing at the picture of a sundae in the menu. </p><p>A few minutes later, a waitress stopped by their table, and she looked like she dreaded what was about to happen. Conan knew that face - the waitresses in this café always wore it when the Shounen Tantei-dan came over, and he couldn't blame her. The children were very much convinced that the louder and quicker they shouted their orders, the faster they would get it. Even though all of them, always, got all their ice cream at the exact same time.</p><p>Before either of the children could open their mouth, however, KID spoke up – and calmly recited every single order while nodding at the respective person. "A big hot chocolate," he said, pointing over Kenichi's head at Conan before moving on to the boy himself, "a large strawberry sundae for this young man here, and a big cup of coffee for me." He smiled brightly at the amazed waitress. "Thank you!"</p><p>The waitress just stared at him for a moment, but then realized what she was doing. She pushed her fake smile back on her lips and hurried to leave the table behind her without even as much as writing down the orders. Conan guessed she had drawn the shortest straw behind the counter to be their unfortunate server that day, and now couldn't quite fathom the children had finally tricked someone into paying for their ice cream who could actually reign them in. </p><p>To be fair, Conan wasn't sure how KID had done that, either.</p><p>"So, Kaito-niichan," Ayumi began after a pause, drawing the teenager's attention to her. "You're a magician, right? Do you know the Kaitou KID?"</p><p>On the other side of the table, KID laughed in surprise, openly and brightly. “Can’t say I’ve ever met him," he brought out, and Conan scoffed. It went largely ignored. Solely Kenichi curiously glanced at him before turning back to KID. "It's not like all magicians know each other, you know. But I'm a big fan!"</p><p>"We have!" Genta interjected enthusiastically before KID had even finished. "And he is really cool!"</p><p>"You only say that because he saved you, Genta-kun," Mitsuhiko muttered next to him, a small frown forming on his face. "But he's still a criminal, right? He's a thief, after all. I don’t know if anyone should be a fan of his."</p><p>Genta sighed. "Yeah, my mom says that too," he admitted reluctantly. "But she also says he always gives back what he steals. And that he's never hurt anyone too badly."</p><p>"And he <em>did</em> save Genta's life; he didn't have to do that," Ayumi added, nodding her head, and Genta's offended <em>hey!</em> went ignored. "And I've met him alone before. He didn't seem like a bad man then, either."</p><p>Conan had forgotten about that incident if he was being honest. Ayumi had happily told them all about how Kaitou KID had appeared on her balcony, surprisingly long-winded for a visit that hadn't even been a minute long and interrupted by a police helicopter. He had filed it away as a coincidence back then, but suddenly, he wasn't all too sure anymore. The fond smile KID had on his face as he regarded the children enthusiastically recalling the times they'd met before didn't really give him any hints either. </p><p>Eventually, Ayumi turned to Conan. "You've met him too, right? Outside of when we all did?" she asked innocently, and Conan just looked at her for a moment. </p><p>“Yeah, don’t you meet him at, like, all his heists?” Genta too threw in, an eyebrow raised at him. </p><p>Conan frowned. “Not all his heists,” he muttered, but then shrugged his shoulders. “But yeah." He leaned back against the bench's backrest as he glanced at KID, and found Kenichi looking at him curiously again. "And I think he's a criminal, no matter which way you look at it. Stealing is a criminal offense, even if the goods are given back, and so is impersonation of police officers, resisting arrest, and knocking people unconscious, to only name a few." He raised an eyebrow, then, suddenly feeling smug as he fully turned to look at the teenager two seats next to him. "Wouldn't you agree, <em>Kaito-niichan</em>?"</p><p>There was that indistinct, blank face again KID looked at him with for several moments. Conan would never admit it, but it almost made him falter before KID spoke. </p><p>"Yes," he said, like it was nothing.</p><p>Conan thought it was the most aggravating thing he could have said.</p><p>"You're right, he's still a criminal, no matter how you look at it, even if he does have his good moments." KID himself shrugged his shoulders, but he didn't take his eyes off Conan. "But I do think he has a reason for what he does."</p><p>Conan could only stare back at him.</p><p>Before anyone could comment on anything that had just happened, their waitress appeared by their table again. She precariously balanced a frankly gigantic tray with every single one of their orders on it; Conan guessed she had found the strength to carry it all the way by herself in the sheer willpower of not wanting to attend their table a second time. </p><p>The children's faces lit up brightly as the waitress handed out one sundae after the other, and the talk of Kaitou KID seemed instantly forgotten.</p><p>The waitress set down Conan's steaming mug of hot chocolate second to last, and when she picked up KID's almost identical-looking coffee, his hands were already across the table to take it from her.</p><p>"Thank you!" he said, brightly but not insincere, and a collective gasp went around the table when he fumbled the mug the moment the waitress let go. It clinked against Conan's right beneath it, and KID let out an overtly loud "oops". He caught his mug quickly enough, and had Conan not stared at his hot chocolate like it had offended him, he would probably not have noticed how KID's fumbling was just a series of very deliberate and very quick movements that ended with him having swapped out their mugs. </p><p>Conan was struck by surprise.</p><p>"Sorry!" he heard KID say as he stabilized the mug he held himself, and the waitress let out a relieved sigh before she quickly made off again.</p><p>Dumbly, Conan looked up, and was taken aback by the wink KID shot him. He was already happily stirring the packet of sugar that had come with the coffee into what was, undoubtedly, Conan's hot chocolate, like nothing had happened at all. </p><p>When he looked around, no one else seemed to have noticed. Solely Haibara was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, and Conan shook his head ever so slightly before wrapping his hands around his coffee. </p><p>They spent the rest of the afternoon idly chatting (surprisingly quietly, Conan realized when he heard the café staff whisper in wonder about it, as they weren’t used to the children’s ability to have a conversation that could not be heard in the entire room), with the Shounen Tantei-dan mostly trying to find out even more about Kenichi. KID seemed happy to give them whatever information they asked for.</p><p>Conan very soon realized that he was merely good at talking a lot without actually saying anything. </p><p>They had, KID told them, just moved to Beika from Ekoda, the two of them, and their mother ("<em>my</em> mother", KID always said when referring to her, Conan noted with a small frown but didn't ask) was currently on the other side of Japan for some personal business, so they were living by themselves. </p><p>“You didn’t have to move very far then,” Mitsuhiko said, frowning. “Ekoda isn’t far, is it?”</p><p>“It’s not,” KID agreed, smiling himself. “But I wanted Ken-chan to be able to walk to school, and for that, Ekoda is, in fact, too far.”</p><p>“Hm,” Mitsuhiko just muttered, and didn’t say anything else. Conan looked at him, wondering what he was thinking about for a moment, but didn’t say anything else either.</p><p>Kenichi had never actually gone to school until the day before, they learned then. He'd been homeschooled by his mother (<em>his</em> mother, as opposed to <em>KID's</em> mother, who apparently wasn't <em>their</em> mother) before, but, upon learning about Conan's ability to sign from his parents, had chosen to enroll him in the same elementary school, and now here they were.</p><p>“So you know Conan’s parents?” Ayumi interjected in surprise, and then she quickly turned to Conan himself with those big, somewhat shocked eyes that were full of sympathy as though she instantly regretted having asked.</p><p>Conan knew the children would sometimes talk about his distinct lack of on-site parents when they thought he didn’t hear, and he also knew that Ayumi felt immensely bad for him about it. It was strangely sweet, he thought.</p><p>“I’ve met them years ago, I think,” KID said, then, not commenting on Ayumi’s behavior, although his frown showed that he had noticed, “But my mother is friends with them.”</p><p>“Oh, okay,” Ayumi conceded, and she bit her lower lip to hold back any further questions about them.</p><p>It was a rather long story KID spun about him and Kenichi, and yet this was all the information he gave up. Parts of which Kenichi had already given them too when they had talked in school. The boy didn’t even as much as look up from his ice cream all through it, until their conversation drifted to their hobbies and whether or not Kenichi enjoyed the same tv shows as the other children did. </p><p>(He did enthusiastically enjoy Kamen Yaiba, but had missed the last two episodes due to them moving to their new apartment; Mitsuhiko happily invited him over to his place sometime soon, as his parents had recorded every single episode of the season at his request.</p><p>Conan wasn’t sure how this hadn’t come up before now.)</p><p>After Genta had talked KID into buying him another sundae and the kids had gotten some drinks, and the conversation had strayed to the Shounen Tantei-dan asking Kenichi to teach them how to say one thing or the other in sign, they eventually made to leave the café. The staff seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief when KID flagged someone down so he could pay, and Conan had to stop himself from wincing when he glanced at the grand total they had racked up. </p><p>(He somehow felt like he should have warned KID that inviting the Shounen Tantei-dan for food was bad news for anyone's wallet.)</p><p>KID paid without any complaint, however, and soon enough they were outside the café and sorting out which children had to go which way to get home. After they said their goodbyes, Ayumi and Genta left in the same direction, soon followed by Mitsuhiko, who had taken some extra time to bow his thanks for the invite to KID. Haibara left them soon after, going down a side street that Conan knew merely put her on a street parallel to the one they were already taking. He knew she only wanted to get away, and didn't stop her.</p><p>KID and Kenichi, as it turned out, happened to live down the same street as the Mouris did. Conan decided not to believe that this was coincidence, but lacking proof, he resigned himself to not voicing his doubts. That didn't stop him from glaring at KID anyway when they stopped in front of the Poirot beneath the detective agency to say their goodbyes.</p><p>As they walked away, Conan gave in to the urge to go back down the stairs and glance after them. He looked around the corner just in time to see Kenichi tugging on KID's sleeve to get his attention. He signed something that looked like <em>does he not like you?</em> and Conan frowned at KID's startled laugh. </p><p>"Looks like it," he could hear KID say in reply as he took Kenichi's offered hand in his. "But that's fine. I'm not expecting him to."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After Conan had almost fallen asleep on his dinner the night before, Wednesday morning found him oversleeping, and he realized how desperately his tiny body was trying to make up for an entire week of sleep deprivation. Ran woke him with an apology on her lips and breakfast already on the table, and Conan hurried to get ready for school.</p>
<p>He was almost down the stairs, two steps ahead of Ran, when he spotted Kenichi and KID standing in front of the hallway. KID had both his and Kenichi's school bags slung over his shoulder and looked like he had fallen asleep standing up, and Kenichi waved at him with a small smile on his face once he saw Conan walking towards them.</p>
<p>Conan, confused, merely waved back.</p>
<p>"Ah, good morning!" Ran said cheerfully as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “I’m sorry we’re a bit late, I forgot you would wait here.” </p>
<p>KID blinked his eyes open. </p>
<p>"Morning," he said, only slightly slurred, and for a moment or two, he stared blankly in the general direction he had heard Ran’s voice from. Only then did he seem to realize where he was, and stood a bit more alert. "Ah! Ran-san! Yes! I told you, I wanted you to meet my little brother. This is Kenichi." </p>
<p>He crouched down to Kenichi and ruffled his hand through the boy's hair. Kenichi snorted out a giggle but couldn't get away from KID's teasing until he turned himself to Ran and looked up at her with a smile. Ran smiled back, and crouched down to his height herself.</p>
<p>"So you're the kid Kaito-kun doesn't stop talking about," she said, and bowed her head a little, "I'm Mouri Ran, it’s very nice to meet you."</p>
<p>Kenichi hesitated for a second, looking at her with his big eyes, before he raised his hands and signed <em>nice to meet you</em> back at her. Neither KID nor Conan bothered to translate, but Ran understood. She got back up, then, and soon enough, all four of them were well on their way to school.</p>
<p>"Did you not sleep well, Kaito-kun?" Ran asked eventually, after KID had yawned deeply for the third time in as many minutes. "You look quite tired."</p>
<p>KID sighed. "I <em>am</em> quite tired," he agreed easily, and Conan frowned. </p>
<p>It was bothering him. The way KID was being so friendly, so open; how he was somehow being a normal teenager, for what it was worth. One that was making friends with Ran of all people. </p>
<p>It wasn’t right. </p>
<p>(Conan’s brain screamed <em>hypocrite</em> at him. He chose to push it aside.)</p>
<p>"There's just a lot of paperwork in transferring schools and a lot of work that needs to be done around the apartment, so sleep is kind of-" KID yawned again in the middle of his reply. "not my main concern right now."</p>
<p>Ran looked at KID in worry, but didn't comment on the issue. Instead, they spent the rest of their walk in casual small talk about something that had happened in class the day before, and Conan had to actively stop himself from groaning in annoyance. </p>
<p>This wasn’t fair. It should’ve been him talking to Ran about the two guys fighting over whatever in the middle of class, not Kaitou KID. Not <em>any</em> guy that just transferred to their class in the middle of the year for whatever reason, really, but <em>him</em>. It wasn’t like he’d ever particularly cared about their class gossip or whatever drama was occurring, but they didn’t have to rub in his face that he didn’t know whether he would ever even get back to his old life as Kudou Shinichi again.</p>
<p>(And what was with this <em>Kaito-kun</em> and <em>Ran-san</em> anyway, he couldn’t help but wonder, irritated; Ran didn’t usually call people she had just met by their given name, what <em>was</em> this--) </p>
<p>A tug on his sleeve pulled Conan from his seething and rapidly spiraling thoughts, and he was surprised to find Kenichi hanging onto his blazer when he tore his eyes from the back of KID’s head.</p>
<p><em>Are you okay?</em> Kenichi signed, looking at him with his big, worried eyes. <em>You seem grumpy.</em></p>
<p>Conan sighed. “I’m fine,” he lied easily, albeit quietly and forced himself to smile at Kenichi. “I just overslept. I’m not entirely awake yet, I think.”</p>
<p>Kenichi looked at him a second more before glancing up at KID. Finally, though, he nodded, gave Conan a small smile and then fully turned away again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After he and Kenichi split from the others to join their friends waiting for them, the school day came and went entirely uneventful. And when it was over, Conan was not surprised at all that they found KID already standing by the gate. He still looked every bit as tired as he had in the morning, but he was smiling now nonetheless, maybe finally more than two seconds away from falling asleep. </p>
<p>The rose he offered Ayumi today was a paler pink than the one she had gotten on Monday, and she squealed happily all the same.</p>
<p>"Are we gonna go for ice cream again?" Genta asked excitedly once all of them had walked up to KID. KID instantly took a step back.</p>
<p>"Ah, no, sorry, I just came to see Ken-chan and say hi," he said, raising his hands in defense; over Genta's disapproving grumble, he added, a moment later, "Maybe next week, okay?"</p>
<p>Genta stared at him a moment longer, but then nodded. "Okay," he agreed, and KID let out a small sigh of relief. He then glanced around, and a smile grew on his face when he found Haibara standing next to Conan only a few steps away. </p>
<p>Conan glared at him, but it didn't deter KID. He dropped down to his knee in front of both of them, and held out his hand to Haibara. With a flick of his wrist, three stems of blooming lavender appeared between his fingers. Haibara blinked at them in surprise. </p>
<p>"No rose this time," KID offered amicably, "but if you want, you can make tea from these."</p>
<p>Haibara huffed, and Conan was certain she was trying to suppress a smile. She took the lavender anyway and wordlessly, and KID all but beamed at her. </p>
<p>He excused himself not much later, ruffled through Kenichi's hair as a goodbye, and hurried down the street and away. He hadn’t even as much as looked at Conan while he had been there.</p>
<p>On their way to the park shortly after, as Mitsuhiko enthusiastically explained the rules of baseball to a thoughtful Kenichi, Haibara pulled Conan behind the other children. </p>
<p>"So, that guy's the Kaitou KID, right?" she asked in a whisper. She was still holding the lavender in her hand. "Does he know who you are? What does he want?"</p>
<p>Conan sighed. He didn’t know which of the abundant evidence had finally tipped Haibara off to KID’s identity, but he decided not to ask. "I don't know," he instead admitted just as quietly. "He <em>says</em> it's all just about his little brother finding friends, but he also says he knew me as a toddler, so there's that."</p>
<p>Haibara hummed a non-committal noise. "He claimed your parents know each other, right? Have you asked them about it?"</p>
<p>Conan shook his head. “I haven’t gotten a hold of them yet,” he muttered, and it was only partially a lie. He had tried to call his mother exactly once, and she had neither answered her phone nor called back yet. </p>
<p>He’d been oddly relieved about it, and had yet to try again.</p>
<p>Conan only got another hum when they reached the park, and he really didn't like the way Haibara looked at him, with a raised eyebrow and a half-formed frown on her face, like she wanted to say something else. She didn't, and Conan was soon pulled into the baseball game the Shounen Tantei-dan set up, much to his chagrin.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their Thursday went just about the same way. KID almost swerved into a lamppost on their way to school in the morning, his only saving grace Ran's hand on his shoulder to wake him up before he fell asleep walking. Ayumi got a deep purple rose, the same color as the lavender once again offered to Haibara. </p>
<p>Their baseball game, however, was cut short this time around, when it started raining in the late afternoon. Kenichi didn’t seem all too disappointed to leave the park early, Conan noticed, as he tried his best not to show his own relief about not having to continue their game. </p>
<p>He did, however, wait to bring that up it until it was only the two of them for the rest of the way home.</p>
<p>“So, do you enjoy baseball?” he asked into the silence between them and looked over at the boy huddled under his bright blue umbrella. </p>
<p>Kenichi was staring at the ground before him, and Conan frowned. Eventually, noticing that Conan was watching him, he subtly shook his head.</p>
<p>Conan stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, blinking at Kenichi in disbelief. "You... what? You don't enjoy playing?" </p>
<p>Again, Kenichi shook his head, and with practiced ease, maneuvered his umbrella into the crook of his neck to hold it there with only his shoulder, to free his hands.  </p>
<p><em>I don’t understand it</em>, he signed.</p>
<p>“You could’ve told the others,” Conan replied, staring at Kenichi as though he was trying to figure out a puzzle. “I don’t like baseball either, I just ususally get outvoted. We could have played something else.”</p>
<p>Kenichi sighed, and looked down at his feet. Conan was about to ask, when he signed, <em>They have fun. I don’t want to ruin it.</em></p>
<p>He doesn't have any friends, Conan suddenly remembered KID saying, and he felt his heart break a little for the boy.</p>
<p>“Kenichi-kun,” Conan said quietly, trying to sound comforting. Kenichi hesitantly looked up at him, but Conan found he didn’t actually have the right words to say to a lonely 7-year-old. He wasn’t at fault for trying his best to not mess up his still very new friendships.</p>
<p>(It wasn’t like Kenichi could know that the Shounen Tantei-dan were very much immediately and completely invested in their new friendship.)</p>
<p>“Next time,” Conan finally said then, a reassuring smile on his face. “we’ll figure out a game we can all have fun playing, okay?”</p>
<p>Kenichi blinked at him, nodded his head, and then quickly turned away. Conan decided to not comment when he rubbed the back of his hands over his eyes some moments later.</p>
<p>“...what do you and your brother usually do in your free time?” Conan asked a few moments later, and the words felt odd. Asking about <em>KID</em> felt odd.</p>
<p>Kenichi glanced at him again, and shrugged his shoulders. <em>I like to draw,</em> he signed, and looked away like he was embarrassed by his own words. <em>My brother reads to me a lot while I draw.</em></p>
<p>Conan frowned as he regarded Kenichi. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but this hadn’t exactly been it. </p>
<p>But who was he to judge. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>After he and Kenichi split ways, Conan spent the evening sorting through the rest of everything KID had said these past few days. He was already certain that KID and Kenichi weren't actually brothers, at least not in blood, but still KID seemed to have uprooted his entire life so Kenichi could go to Teitan Elementary. Like there weren't any other schools in Tokyo that might be better or at all equipped to deal with disabled children - like he had to entrust Kenichi to Conan, specifically. </p>
<p>Which, once again, felt an awful lot like this was some long-winded plot, somehow, but Conan found himself doubting that theory more and more. </p>
<p>He didn’t want it to be true.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It didn't stop raining all through the night, and was still pouring when Conan made down the stairs from the Mouris’ apartment the next morning. He opened his umbrella before stepping out, and only then noticed that only KID's feet stood outside the hallway next to the ever growing puddle, waiting for them. </p>
<p>"Good morning, Kaito-kun," Ran greeted him with a broad smile when KID's own greeting was drowned by a yawn. "And good morning, Kenichi-kun." </p>
<p>Conan frowned, and looked up past his umbrella - to where Kenichi was sitting on KID's shoulders, one hand securely buried in the mess that was KID's hair, and the other one holding his tiny blue umbrella over the both of them. It did nothing to shield KID from the rain anywhere from his waist down, but that didn't seem to bother him.  </p>
<p>The boy smiled back at Ran, and, once he noticed Conan looking at him, nodded at him, too. </p>
<p>Kenichi spent their shared walk to school giggling, entertained by the way KID's steps bounced exaggeratedly as he still managed to gracefully avoid any puddles in his way. When they came to a stop by a traffic light, Ran leaned down to Conan. </p>
<p>"They're sweet, aren't they?" she asked quietly as she watched KID sway in place and laugh when he bent back so far he almost (but not really) dislodged Kenichi from his shoulders. The other people waiting at the red light took a collective step back. </p>
<p>Conan looked at them for a few moments, and then hesitantly hummed his agreement. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>No matter how much time the Shounen Tantei-dan spent glued to the window of their classroom, glaring at the gray sky, the rain didn’t let up through the rest of the day. So, when they left school, they all reluctantly fumbled open their umbrellas as they discussed where to spend the afternoon.</p>
<p>Ayumi was the first one to notice something was off, only a few steps out the door. She stopped, and frowned at the gate.</p>
<p>"...Kaito-niichan isn't here," she said, sounding disappointed. </p>
<p>Conan's eyes followed Ayumi’s to the gate, before he turned to Kenichi next to him.</p>
<p>Kenichi was staring at the yard's gate in abstract horror.</p>
<p>Conan knew immediately that something was severely wrong.</p>
<p>"Hey," Conan said quietly, trying to get the boy's attention. Kenichi's eyes flickered over to him briefly. "Did he say anything about not making it here today?" </p>
<p>KID had mentioned no such thing on their walk to school in the morning, Conan knew, but he hadn't explicitly said he <em>would</em> be there, either. (He hadn't mentioned any of that on the previous days either, though, and had shown up anyway, so it wasn't like there was any solid evidence either way.)</p>
<p>Kenichi took a deep, shuddering breath, and shook his head. He fumbled with his umbrella for a moment and managed to bring his backpack to his side, in which he rummaged around until he produced a white flip phone. Conan didn't even try to hide the fact he was looking over his shoulder when Kenichi flicked the phone open and found exactly nothing new. The last messages he had exchanged with KID were from the evening before, from after Kenichi and Conan had parted ways. </p>
<p>(“I don’t understand how friends work” was Kenichi’s last message, and there was no reply. Conan had to suppress a flinch.)</p>
<p>A moment later had Kenichi click through to his contact list, and dial KID's number. It was one of only three saved on the phone, Conan noted, but he got distracted when he heard the dial tone from where Kenichi was pressing the phone to his ear. </p>
<p>He could feel Kenichi holding his breath when it rang; it rang twice, three times. The fourth ring was interrupted by KID's voice mail answering. Kenichi hung up, breathed out, and dialed the number again. It went the same way as before. He lowered the phone, and looked at it the same way he had looked at the gate before. </p>
<p>From Kenichi's other side, Mitsuhiko carefully stepped up to them. “Is something wrong?” he asked quietly, worried, as he regarded Kenichi’s ash-pale face with a frown.</p>
<p>"I'm sure it's fine," Conan quickly answered for him, sounding much more relaxed than he was feeling. Kenichi's sudden and quickly growing panic was setting him more on edge than he was willing to admit. KID's whereabouts, while slightly concerning when he spent at least half the day around Ran (and Sonoko of all people), weren't really any of Conan's concern outside of his heists. Kenichi's reaction, however, seemed so very disproportionate, Conan had to do <em>something</em>.</p>
<p>"Ah, well, we, um." Mitsuhiko glanced behind him at the rest of the Shounen Tantei-dan. Genta gave him a thumbs up. "We thought we'd go to my place and video games. You two are invited too, obviously."</p>
<p>When Conan turned to Kenichi, he felt like he already knew the answer he would receive. <em>I stay</em>, Kenichi signed immediately; he almost dropped his phone in the process, his wide, terrified eyes fixed on Conan. </p>
<p>Conan sighed, and turned back to Mitsuhiko. "You guys go ahead," he said, decision set. "I'll wait with Kenichi for his brother. We'll join you later."</p>
<p>Mitsuhiko looked at him for a few moments, but sighed then. "Okay," he said, sounding only a little disappointed. "See you guys around, then."</p>
<p>He turned away, and quietly explained to the others that Conan and Kenichi wouldn't join them. Thankfully, they left then, without much more than a look back at them. Sometimes, Conan knew, Mitsuhiko actually understood when to not press a point. </p>
<p>(Haibara stayed a few seconds longer, staring at the both of them with a frown set deep into her face. Conan quite literally waved her off; he would text her later.)</p>
<p>"Let’s wait up front," Conan said, a few moments after the Shounen Tantei-dan had disappeared from the gate. "So we'll see him coming earlier."</p>
<p>Kenichi nodded stiffly. He fumbled his backpack back where it belonged, and almost dropped his phone again. </p>
<p>They settled outside the yard; with nothing to sit on, Conan leaned against the wall, while Kenichi picked up pacing up and down the sidewalk in front of him, checking his phone every few seconds. It did nothing to calm either of them down, Conan noticed rather quickly, but at least it gave something to do, while he tried and failed to figure out something to say. Any promises that KID was fine had no base at all, and, especially knowing his luck, he had stopped promising anything of the sort a long time ago. </p>
<p>(Though he did, genuinely, hope that KID was alright.)</p>
<p>Caught up in his thoughts, Conan only belatedly realized that Kenichi eventually stopped pacing. He was suddenly crouched down on the sidewalk, and if the shaking of his umbrella was anything to go by, crying. Conan tried to swallow down the knot that immediately set up in his throat. He wasn't exactly the best at calming down children - dealing with their antics, sure, but calming them down? That's what parents were for. </p>
<p>(For a moment, he wondered how he usually got Ayumi to calm down when she was terrified - and quickly realized that she, much like the rest of the Shounen Tantei-dan, typically only calmed down because it was <em>him</em> asking her to, and he very much doubted this would work on Kenichi.)</p>
<p>Still, he took a deep breath, and hurried over to Kenichi's slumped over form to crouch down in front of the boy.</p>
<p>"Hey," he said quietly, and put his hands on Kenichi's shoulders as a sob shook his body. "Hey, Kenichi. Look at me, okay?"</p>
<p>It took effort, but Kenichi complied; slowly, he lifted his head, and stared at Conan from too bright, too red eyes. He looked miserable. But that wasn't something Conan could dwell on; not until he stopped the child from hyperventilating in the middle of a deserted street, anyway.</p>
<p>"Good. Okay, now-"</p>
<p>Conan was interrupted by the sirens of an ambulance wailing up in the distance. </p>
<p>Kenichi choked on a gasp. Conan swore under his breath.</p>
<p>He didn’t know what to do. </p>
<p>“<em>Hey</em>,” he said again, trying to get the boy’s attention back on him. It didn’t work at all. Through his hiccups and sobs, Kenichi barely even managed to open his eyes, and when he did, he looked past Conan entirely - over his shoulder, at something in the distance.</p>
<p>Instinctually, Conan turned around to follow what Kenichi was looking at, and found a teenager running up the sidewalk, dressed in Teitan High’s uniform, messy hair plastered down by the steady downpour as he wildly swung his arm at them. </p>
<p>Conan breathed a deep sigh of relief. </p>
<p>“I’m here!” he heard KID yell what had to be the very moment he came into earshot. As he ran up to them, Conan got up and moved out of the way to Kenichi’s side. </p>
<p>KID was with them in a matter of moments; he dropped to his knees the very second he was close enough, and gathered Kenichi in his arms in the same motion. The boy buried his face against his shoulder. </p>
<p>“I’m <em>sorry</em>, I’m here now,” KID whispered against Kenichi’s hair, still catching his breath as he adjusted his hold around the tiny boy in his arms. “I’m here.”</p>
<p>Kenichi nodded against KID’s shoulder through his sobs, and Conan finally decided to tear himself away. He gathered up the umbrella Kenichi had dropped before it could get swept away by the wind, and pointedly took several seconds to figure out how to close it before turning away fully to pick his own umbrella up, too. He hadn’t even realized he had dropped it when he had hurried to Kenichi’s side.</p>
<p>When Conan turned back to them, Kenichi had climbed onto KID’s back, huddling as close as he possibly could. KID got up with a quiet sigh, and turned to look at Conan.</p>
<p>“Thank you for waiting with him,” he said, then, and Conan startled. </p>
<p>KID, too, looked miserable.</p>
<p>Maybe it was just KID’s fatigue, he decided to himself, that seemed to be edged into KID’s face, and held out Kenichi’s umbrella for KID to take.</p>
<p>“No problem,” he simply said.</p>
<p>KID smiled at him when he took the umbrella, and although it looked sincere, it seemed just as much forced. </p>
<p>“Let’s go home, okay?” he asked over his shoulder, and Conan could see Kenichi nod his head vigorously before the question was even fully out. </p>
<p>Conan didn’t comment. He merely watched as KID pushed the umbrella behind his back under Kenichi’s thighs, nodded his goodbye and turned around to leave, and he merely watched as KID walked away with a limp in his walk that looked nothing like his deliberately swaying steps in the morning had. </p>
<p>And as he made to leave for Mitsuhiko’s place, a thoughtful frown on his face, he merely watched as the rain washed a few streaks of blood from the sidewalk into the drain.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, uh. Fun fact: In Japanese Sign Language, you say “nice to meet you” by making your pointer fingers bow to one another, which is. Very Japanese imo. Which is why I figured Ran would understand.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm sorry for the delay. I'll try to get the next chapter up a bit quicker, but man - getting these boys to talk to each other is <em>hard</em>.<br/>Oh also, if anyone can spot the very random and very obscure song lyrics I used in this, let me know because I will love you for ever.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“All I’m asking,” Conan said, hours later, as he sat on Professor Agasa’s kitchen counter, “is that you tell Ran that after I got here, I fell asleep playing some game you wanted to show me or something. She’ll be glad I get some rest.”</p><p>He sent the message he had been typing to Mitsuhiko and finally looked up at Agasa then, who stared back at him with an uncomfortable frown on his face.</p><p>“And what are you <em>actually</em> going to do, Shinichi?” he asked, his arms crossed in front of his chest in what had to be the sternest expression he had worn in a while. “Is there a case going on I’m not aware of?”</p><p>Conan sighed, and did his best to hide his annoyance. He had known Agasa wouldn’t just go through with his plan to give him an alibi for the night without any questions - Ran had turned to the professor for advice on Conan’s insomnia, he was aware of that, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t actively avoided Agasa for that exact reason these past two weeks.</p><p>But Conan didn’t quite have the patience for this right now.</p><p>“I need to go talk to someone,” he finally, carefully replied after some moments of consideration. His phone beeped in his hand with a message from Mitsuhiko that he barely glanced at (<em>”Oh, okay. Feel better soon! See you on Monday!”</em>) “It’s not for a case. Not yet anyway.”</p><p>“Not <em>yet</em>?” Agasa echoed immediately. “Shinichi, is this about Kaitou KID?”</p><p>Conan blinked at him, surprised, but didn’t get a word in before Agasa continued.</p><p>“Ai-kun told me. His little brother is in your class now, yes? And he’s trying to get close to you and the kids? Kaitou KID is not part of <em>Them</em>, is he? Are you and Ai-kun-- or the kids in danger?”</p><p>“We are <em>not</em> in danger,” Conan replied as quickly as he could. “Not from him. What’s with everyone assuming that?”</p><p>Agasa frowned at him again, and Conan realized that he wasn’t sure himself where the confidence in his own words kept coming from. He didn’t question it, however; it was true enough - it was <em>KID</em> after all. And Agasa seemed to relax at least a little.</p><p>“I’m absolutely certain he’s not part of the Organization,” Conan said then, calmer now, as Agasa seemed to wait for him to continue instead of saying anything else himself. “It’s true that he introduced a child as his little brother to our class, and all of us did spend some time together, but I couldn’t find any malicious reason for it; actually, I couldn’t find any reason at <em>all</em> so far. That’s why I need to talk to him, to find out what’s going on. Which is why I need you to tell Ran I’m staying the night here. I already told her I was going to your place.”</p><p>Agasa managed to keep up the illusion of sternness for another few seconds, before his face fell with a heavy sigh.</p><p>“Fine,” he conceded, “Fine, I’ll tell Ran-kun you fell asleep. But I swear, Shinichi, if I need to come save you-“</p><p>“Thanks, professor!” Conan interjected without any hesitation, not bothering to listen to Agasa a second longer now that he had reached his goal. He hopped off the kitchen counter and grabbed his skateboard from the floor before Agasa even managed to react.</p><p>“How are you even going to find him?” Agasa called after him. “There is no heist announced, is there?”</p><p>“I know where he lives,” came the prompt reply, followed by a shrug of Conan’s shoulder as he slipped into his shoes. “Well, I know where he <em>says</em> he lives, anyway. I guess I’ll see whether that part of his story is true.”</p><p> </p><p>The apartment building Kenichi had indicated when they had realized they lived not far from each other was, by all means, absolutely unremarkable. A typical apartment building, not unlike the one Ayumi lived in on the other side of Beika. It stood about ten minutes down the road from the Mouri’s place and Conan reached it barely a half-hour after leaving Agasa’s house.</p><p>It was quiet around the building when he circled it once before making it into the entrance hall, where he found both a mailbox and a doorbell marked <em>Kuroba</em>. For all intents and purposes, it looked like KID and Kenichi lived here.</p><p>Somehow that was already more than Conan had anticipated to find.</p><p>Which now left him with the next task: To figure out a way into the actual building itself. </p><p>In the few minutes Conan had watched and been in the tiny entrance hall, not a single person had come or gone. It felt unusual, with it being a mild Friday night after the rain had finally let up, but there was nothing he could do about it. Without another person living here opening the door for him, there was no way to get to the elevators. </p><p>(The building’s back door was locked - he had checked. The only open window he could find leading to the stairwell was too high up, and too small anyway for even him to push through.</p><p>He could have, of course, rang a random doorbell in the hopes to be let in, or even rang the one labelled Kuroba, but drawing unnecessary attention to himself didn’t seem ideal. Not as long as he didn’t know what KID’s plans were.</p><p>Not to mention that if anything KID had told them actually was true, Kenichi should already be in bed and asleep, which was, after all, the exact reason Conan had wasted half the day away before coming here in the first place. He needed to talk to KID alone, without Kenichi around; waking him up would do no good.)</p><p>With a last look around, Conan sighed to himself and left the entrance hall again. There was a small park across the street, where he set down his skateboard under a tree to sit on as he waited for a sign of someone coming home that he could sneak in with.</p><p>Surprisingly, Conan didn’t have to wait for long - barely ten minutes later, one of the elevators he could see from his chosen waiting spot arrived downstairs, and revealed a messy-haired teenager in what looked to be the half-shed remnants of a dirty Teitan High School uniform.</p><p>Conan shot up from his skateboard.</p><p>“Isn’t it way past your bedtime already,” KID said by way of greeting halfway across the mostly empty street. His voice sounded rough around the edges, not as clear as it usually did; like a cold was threatening to make his throat sore.</p><p>“How did you know I was here?” Conan shot back, not nearly as relaxed as KID had the audacity to be.</p><p>There hadn’t been a point in this past week where he had been close enough for KID to put a tracker on him, he knew - Kenichi, however, was a different story. They sat next to one another at school, and Conan had left both his jacket and his bag unattended there several times. However, Conan realized, he had neither his jacket nor his bag on him at this moment, and he couldn’t fathom where else KID could have hidden anything that would reliably on him--</p><p>“Relax,” KID said, stopping a few steps in front of Conan and derailing his spiraling thoughts with it. He held his hands up as though to show Conan how very empty they were - not that this ever meant anything with KID. “I happened to see you stalking around out here, and decided to come ask what you were doing here this time of day. Kenichi went to bed, like, an hour ago, he can’t really come play anymore.”</p><p>Conan huffed, and bit back a sarcastic comment. KID’s words very much sounded like they were supposed to tease, but his tone and his entire stance seemed nothing short of exhausted. For a moment, Conan wondered whether KID really did think he’d only be here to see Kenichi.</p><p>“I’m not here for Kenichi,” Conan said instead, only marginally calmer now. “I’m here for you.”</p><p>“Oh, yay,” KID muttered to himself, as he glanced around the park behind Conan. “Well, tell whoever sent you that I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now. And if it’s Hakuba, add that I’m disappointed he would stoop this low.”</p><p>“What?” Conan frowned up at him; KID was still not looking at him. When Conan decided to follow his gaze, he found nothing but the empty park. “No one <em>sent</em> me. <em>I</em> want answers.”</p><p>“To what question?”</p><p>Conan turned back around to him. </p><p>“Well, first of all - what were you doing today before meeting Kenichi and me; how did you get hurt?” he began, and gestured at KID’s left leg, where a washed-out brownish stain reached all the way from his knee to the hem of his pants. “You have a wound there, probably on your knee. It was fresh when you came to pick Kenichi up, the blood only seeped into your pants when you crouched down on the wet sidewalk. Ran didn’t mention anything happening at school today, so it must have happened on the way, and if it was only a small scratch, you wouldn’t still be limping.”</p><p>As he spoke, KID turned back to Conan, and looked him thoroughly up and down; as though he was only now fully realizing who was standing in front of him.</p><p>“I’m sorry to disappoint, <em>again</em>,” KID said after a few moments of silence, his face the same completely and unnervingly blank expression he kept using on Conan. “I’m sure you’re expecting me to tell you something about a heist location I’m scouting out or something equally illegal, but the truth is that I was ran over by a girl on a bike.”</p><p>Conan raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. KID rolled his eyes, and continued.</p><p>“Some girl lost control of her bike in the rain and ran into me. Both of us fell, I scraped my knee, and she hurt her wrist. She seemed in shock, so I didn’t trust her to get to a hospital by herself, so I called an ambulance and waited with her until it arrived.”</p><p>“You didn’t answer Kenichi’s calls,” Conan cut in, and KID sighed, resigned. </p><p>“My phone got waterlogged when I called the ambulance, the screen stopped working so I couldn’t answer or make any more calls,” he explained, and nodded his head behind him at the apartment building. “It’s currently sitting in a bowl of rice in my kitchen. Do you want to check for yourself, or are you done interrogating me now?”</p><p>Conan glared up at KID. The story, admittedly, sounded logical enough. Conan filed it away to go over it again at some later time to decide whether he would believe it or not, though - for now, he had other questions he needed answers to.</p><p>“I’m not done,” he said then, not backing off. “Why did you put Kenichi in my class?”</p><p>KID threw his head back and let out a groan that sounded more like a barely held back yawn, and with it, stopped anything else Conan wanted to say. “<em>Fine</em>,” KID said towards the sky, sounding defeated. “But I’m not doing this here. I can’t have Kenichi wake up to an empty apartment if he needs to pee or something.”</p><p>Without waiting for a reaction from Conan, KID then turned, and walked back towards the building he had stepped out of. His limp seemed worse, now, Conan realized, like he had merely made a poor job of concealing it earlier. </p><p>Conan hesitated. Obviously, KID wanted him to follow, but he wasn’t entirely certain following KID <em>anywhere</em> was ever a good idea. He had come so far, though; he couldn’t back off now. </p><p>KID looked objectively terrible. In a worst-case-scenario, Conan would probably easily be able to defend himself - and in a not-all-that-bad-scenario, he would get some answers out of him.</p><p>Conan huffed. He picked up his skateboard from its spot beneath the tree, and hurried to catch up with KID.</p><p>“You mentioned Hakuba,” he decided to say then, as he watched KID dig his keyring from his pocket. “As in, Hakuba Saguru, the detective that sometimes shows up to your heists? Does he know you?”</p><p>KID opened his mouth as though to say something, like it was a reflex, but then only sighed and shook his head to himself. Conan could see him roll his eyes in the reflection of the glass door leading to the elevators.</p><p>“We’re classmates,” KID finally said as he held the door open for Conan. “Well. We <em>were</em> classmates, back in Ekoda, whenever he was around.” The elevator opened with a ping the moment KID pressed the button, and Conan quietly followed him inside. “So ‘knowing’ is a bit of a stretch. He tries and fails to prove I’m Kaitou KID, and I tolerate his existence.”</p><p>Conan turned to look up at him as KID pressed the button labeled 7. The harsh, cold light of the elevator made KID’s face look pale against the mess of matte black hair dried against his forehead. In the darkness outside, Conan hadn’t realized just how exhausted he looked.</p><p>“He knows you’re KID,” he didn’t ask, but stated, frowning, and KID shrugged his shoulders. </p><p>“He’s never been able to find proper evidence,” he said, before glancing back at Conan. “And neither will you if that’s what you’re here for.”</p><p>Conan had to stop himself from rolling his eyes like a petulant child. Sure, he could see why KID would be suspicious of him just showing up unannounced like this - but KID had shown up out of nowhere himself, with some random child in tow no less, and hadn’t bothered to worry whether Conan would be suspicious of <em>him</em> either. KID, Conan decided, simply didn’t get to worm his way out of this one now.</p><p>“I’m not,” he insisted instead, and somehow managed to not sound too annoyed. </p><p>“Yeah, sure,” KID muttered under his breath. </p><p>The elevator dinged again, and KID stepped out of it before the doors were even fully open. Conan followed him in silence. </p><p>They went past several apartment doors, all labeled with names Conan had seen on the mailboxes in the entrance hall, before reaching a heavy glass door that KID all but tackled open with his shoulder. He held it open for Conan to slip through before leading the way down a flight of stairs. Through another, similar glass door and down another hallway, they finally stood in front of a plain wooden door labeled <em>Kuroba</em>.</p><p>As KID produced his keyring again that had found its way back into his pocket, Conan glanced behind him. Something about this surprised him more than he was willing to admit. He had figured KID was a careful person, had to be in his profession, but he hadn’t thought of him as paranoid enough to take the elevator to a different story than he lived on. </p><p>(Or to check his windows for someone walking around the apartment building he lived in, for that matter.</p><p>But somehow, Conan realized - he could relate.)</p><p>“Come in, then,” KID said quietly as he opened the door. </p><p>KID’s apartment, at first glance, looked perfectly ordinary. Kenichi’s shoes were neatly lined up at the entrance, next to where KID toed off his own sneakers. From where he stood, Conan could see an open door leading to a kitchen to his left, a door to what looked like a sitting room straight ahead, and four more closed doors lining the corridor’s right-hand side. A toilet, a bathroom, Kenichi’s bedroom and KID’s bedroom, he mused.</p><p>Wordlessly, KID dropped a pair of child-size slippers in front of Conan from a shelf next to the door before disappearing into the kitchen.</p><p>There wasn’t really much else to see, Conan found. Solely a cardboard box sat next to the shelf that had <em>kitchen</em> written on it in messy katakana, filled with bunched up paper and more ripped up boxes. Conan carefully propped his skateboard against the wall next to it as he changed into the slippers and followed KID.</p><p>Through the door, Conan found that the kitchen was open, connected to the sitting room he had seen, and that everything about it was almost as empty and very much as unremarkable as the hallway. </p><p>The kitchen looked spotless, though not in a recently cleaned-way as much as in a never used-way; another cardboard box marked <em>kitchen</em> sat in a corner with a trash bag on it that seemed to hold nothing but empty takeout cartons and supermarket bento boxes, and next to the sink laid some cutlery and chopsticks.</p><p>On the heater under the window sat a bowl filled almost to the brim with uncooked rice.</p><p>In the far corner of the sitting room were more stacked boxes, next to a shelf with a handful of books and a single picture frame that was lying picture-side down.</p><p>The couch looked not entirely new, but not notably worn either and had the blazer of KID’s school uniform thrown over its backrest. The tv in the shelf across from it had a handful days’ worth of dust on it. On the small table between the tv and the couch, there was a closed laptop next to some pencils and a notebook that looked like ones Kenichi took to school. </p><p>“Found what you were looking for yet?” KID said behind him, and Conan flinched. He hadn’t exactly meant to just stand around and stare, but, well. This was supposedly where Kaitou KID lived, and it all just looked so… ordinary. He didn’t know what he had expected, but it hadn’t been this. </p><p>Then again, as it turned out, not much about KID was what he would have expected. </p><p>When Conan didn’t reply, KID pulled open the fridge as he suppressed another yawn. “You want some juice?” he asked, and picked up plastic bottles as he listed them. “I have mango, apple, orange, and-“ He stopped, and frowned down at the last bottle for a moment. “And apple.”</p><p>Conan waved his hand dismissively. “I’m fine,” he said, and KID shrugged his shoulders. He put three of the bottles back in the fridge and went to pick up a glass from next to the sink. </p><p>“Make yourself at home, then,” he muttered, and gestured in the vague direction of the sitting room.</p><p>Conan looked around one last time, and then went to sit on the couch.</p><p>KID joined him a few moments later, a glass of apple juice in hand, and settled on a throw pillow on the floor across from Conan. He looked highly uncomfortable as he shifted around, trying to find a way to sit that wasn’t hurting his injured leg (of which Conan, annoyingly, still didn’t know the full extend) but didn’t complain. </p><p>“So,” KID finally said as he gave up and simply leaned back on his free hand with his legs sprawled in front of him under the coffee table. He sounded quieter now. “Back to where we were, then, I suppose.” </p><p>“Kenichi,” Conan agreed, matching KID’s volume as to not risk waking the child in question. </p><p>KID nodded his head. “I already told you, though: He’s in dire need of friends. And since you know sign, you were my best bet.” He frowned. “So what makes you think I had a different reason?”</p><p>“It’s too specific,” Conan said. “I refuse to believe it’s only because I know sign language. Most schools only require you to provide an interpreter for a mute or deaf child to attend, and with the resources I’m certain you have you probably could’ve found someone in Ekoda. You didn’t have to find a new place to live, move, change your own school, and all that - and yet you did. So - <em>why?</em>”</p><p>KID sighed, and put down his glass of juice on the table. For a moment, Conan wasn’t sure he would say anything at all. </p><p>Finally, though, KID looked back up at him.</p><p>“Fine. <em>Fine</em>. I put Kenichi in your class, specifically,” he began, his eyebrows knit together in a frown. “because if push comes to shove, I know I can trust you to keep him safe.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>now with 90 % more italics, 30 % more swearing, and 100 % more apologies for the delay because these boys just don't want to <em>talk with each other</em></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Conan stopped completely. </p>
<p>He could only stare at KID in front of him, on the other side of the table, as he tried and failed to vocalize or even fully grasp a single thought that went through his mind before KID had stopped talking.</p>
<p>On his pillow on the floor, KID groaned, and rubbed his hands over his face; he looked like he had anticipated Conan's reaction (or lack thereof), but was still disappointed about it. </p>
<p>(It wasn't a good look on him.)</p>
<p>"See," he said through his fingers. "See, this is why I didn't want to tell you."</p>
<p>Conan, struck by surprise, frowned. "What?"</p>
<p>KID waved a hand vaguely in his direction, but didn't look up at him as he was still massaging his forehead with the other. "I can hear your brain working from here," he said, like it explained everything, "trying to figure out what I kept from you."</p>
<p>For another moment, Conan just looked at him. KID wasn’t entirely wrong, he had to admit, as his thoughts slowly caught up with him again.</p>
<p>He'd only ever paid attention to Kenichi this past week. To the danger the child might pose; what advantages KID would gain from putting someone so close to Conan, what kind of intel he would gain from it that he wouldn't get any other way.</p>
<p>He had never even considered whether Kenichi would be the one in need of protection; KID hadn’t even implied it. So if there was more that KID hadn’t told him, he couldn’t even begin to count the problems it could cause.</p>
<p>"So," Conan said, then, when KID didn't seem inclined to elaborate by himself. "What <em>did</em> you keep from me?"</p>
<p>"Nothing," KID replied instantly, sounding exasperated. He finally looked up, then, and Conan found that he didn't look nearly as annoyed as he sounded. In fact, KID looked like he dreaded every bit of the conversation they were having. </p>
<p>And suddenly, Conan realized that he could read all of those emotions right off KID’s face. Gone was his usual stoic calm and blank face that was only ever exchanged with arrogant glee or mocking cheerfulness, giving away nothing about his actual thoughts. </p>
<p>Conan had never noticed that KID actually had quite an expressive face.</p>
<p>“I don’t know yet whether he’s in any danger at all. If I did, I’d have told you,” KID added, then, and Conan frowned. </p>
<p>"Who might he be in danger <em>from</em>, though?” he continued. If KID would just give up a little more information, just <em>enough</em>, he could work with it to figure out what exactly his role in all of this was supposed to be. “Do you have any enemies that would go as far as harming a child?"</p>
<p>KID, to Conan's surprise, snorted out what he supposed was a laugh. It was a choked sound, completely void of humor.</p>
<p>"Do you want that list sorted by name or by date I pissed them off?" KID said, and shook his head to himself. </p>
<p>Conan felt himself getting very impatient with KID very quickly. He was a detective, damnit, and it wasn’t like KID didn’t know this all too well. If there was a threat, even just a potential one, Conan could <em>help</em>; it was what he <em>did</em>. Yet KID kept deflecting, and it bothered Conan immensely - he already knew KID’s identity (it wasn’t like KID had made an effort to hide it in the first place), so his unwillingness to give him a straight answer didn’t seem all that reasonable unless he was hiding something even bigger, even <em>worse</em>--</p>
<p>“Don’t answer that,” KID stopped his thoughts, then, before Conan got a single word out, taking Conan’s momentary silence for him actually contemplating a reply. "It doesn't matter. As I said, putting him in your protection was just a pre-"</p>
<p>"KID-", Conan tried to interrupt, unable to hold back as his patience threatened to run out. KID, however, kept talking.</p>
<p>"-caution, and it's Kaito, actually. Look-"</p>
<p>"<em>KID</em>, I'm trying to offer my help here, but I can't do that-"</p>
<p>"-I <em>appreciate</em> your unbelievable generosity, Meitantei, but-“</p>
<p>“-if I don't have the <em>facts</em>-“</p>
<p>“-I am not going to share the intricacies of being a professional nuisance with a nosy first-grader-"</p>
<p>"<em>I'm seventeen</em>, and I’m trying to <em>help</em>, damnit!"</p>
<p>This time, it was KID who stopped. His mouth was open, ready to wave off any other argument Conan could have thrown his way, but no sound came out. Instead, he stared at Conan, directly for once, his eyebrows raised in surprise.</p>
<p>It took several seconds for Conan to realize what he had just said.</p>
<p>He felt the color drain from his face.</p>
<p>"<em>Shit</em>," he said, the same moment KID muttered, "I'll be damned."</p>
<p>Conan felt trapped; the door wasn’t far, if he was to make for it, he would be out of this place in seconds. </p>
<p>But with KID staring at him, in the deafening silence around them - he could barely move.</p>
<p>He raised his hands in defense. "Listen, KID-" he tried, not actually knowing how to continue, and he swallowed thickly. </p>
<p>He had to say <em>something</em>.</p>
<p>"It's Kaito," KID cut him off, as calm as though they hadn't just talked over one another with rising volume. "And you <em>are</em> the ever-elusive Kudou Shinichi, aren’t you."</p>
<p>Slowly, Conan lowered his hands again.</p>
<p>(It only occurred to him much later that he could have tried to laugh it off as a child’s joke and move on; but KID didn’t seem like he would’ve believed him, anyway.)</p>
<p>"You knew?" he asked carefully. KID's reaction was, well. <em>Unusual</em>, to say the least - it certainly wouldn't have been his reaction, had a random child he knew just gone and claimed to be not only a teenager, but a famous (and famously <em>missing</em>) one at that.</p>
<p>(But then again - Conan wasn’t exactly just a random child KID just <em>happened</em> to know, was he.)</p>
<p>"No," KID admitted with a shrug. He sat up on his pillow; he flinched with the movement of his hurt leg, but was more attentive than before and continued undeterred as he picked up his glass of juice from the table in front of him. "I had my suspicions ever since we met, I guess, but the only explanation I could come up with was that you pissed off a very powerful witch, and I figured you'd have enough sense in you to come to me for help with magical problems."</p>
<p>Conan huffed. "...a witch. Right."</p>
<p>"Yeah, yeah, I know." KID waved him off, and shifted around again. No matter how he tried to sit, nothing seemed very comfortable. "I wouldn't believe it either if I didn't know one personally. Whatever. What <em>happened</em> to you?"</p>
<p>KID looked at him expectantly, patiently even, all his annoyance from just bare minutes ago gone completely. Conan was rather inclined to ask about the entire witch-thing some more, as it not only sounded utterly ridiculous if KID was as serious about it as he seemed, but also didn't make him the subject of this interrogation. </p>
<p>(That's what it felt like, anyway - talking one-on-one with KID always carried a certain kind of weight with it, but this was the first time Conan felt this uncomfortable about it.)</p>
<p>He hadn’t ever planned on sharing this with someone - especially not Kaitou KID of all people, but, well. He’d gone and made the mistake of letting his most important secret slip, just like that. There was no easy way out of this now.</p>
<p>And maybe - maybe, if he was honest now, then maybe KID would be more inclined to share his secrets, too.</p>
<p>"I..." Conan crumpled into himself with a sigh, searching for the right words. "I messed up. I didn't get help when I should have, and got myself poisoned for it. And now I look like this." He gestured vaguely at himself, and found that he couldn't meet KID's eyes anymore. “That’s the gist of it, anyway.”</p>
<p>He had long since admitted to himself that his entire situation he was in was his own fault. There had still been some of Megure's people from Division One in the amusement park at the time, he could have easily found someone and told them about the men in black he had seen - hell, he could've even taken Ran with him as a lookout, or just been more careful, damnit, <em>anything</em>.</p>
<p>But no, Kudou Shinichi, the detective otaku that was too arrogant to accept that even he could be out of his depth, had to go after the Bad Guys himself, like he had to prove something to anyone.</p>
<p>Conan had admitted all of this to himself long ago. </p>
<p>But saying it out loud was another punch in the gut all together.</p>
<p>"...poison?" KID asked carefully, quietly, like he wasn't even sure how to pronounce the word correctly. </p>
<p>Conan, reluctantly, nodded his head, but didn’t say anything else.</p>
<p>KID, too, was quiet for a long time, then. When Conan looked at him, he was frowning into his glass of apple juice like it was whispering the meaning of life to him. </p>
<p>He snapped out of it with a huff what felt like several minutes later. </p>
<p>"So," KID said, looking up. He put his glass back on the table, like it had actually sparked an epiphany and had therefore done its job. "Does Ran-san not know about this, or is she just <em>really</em> good at keeping secrets?"</p>
<p>"She doesn't know," Conan admitted. "Not many people know."</p>
<p>KID hummed thoughtfully to himself, and something in Conan’s head clicked together. Momentarily panicked, he looked up. "And I need you to <em>keep it that way</em>," he brought out, almost tripping over his own words in his hurry to get them out.</p>
<p>KID raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't know, Meitantei,” he said slowly, “you're asking a lot here. <em>Me</em>, keeping a secret to myself, of all people? Sounds harsh, don’t you know what a blabbermouth I am."</p>
<p>Conan stared at him.</p>
<p>KID stared back.</p>
<p>"You're making fun of me," Conan said, severely unimpressed.</p>
<p>"You brought that one onto yourself," KID replied.</p>
<p>Conan sighed, defeated. “I know, I deserved that,” he muttered. He rubbed his hands over his tired eyes under his glasses and leaned back on the couch. It was surprisingly comfortable.</p>
<p>(It, rather slowly but surely, dawned on Conan that KID, with his hurt leg, could have easily either ushered him off or simply joined him on the couch instead of awkwardly sitting on the floor. </p>
<p>He couldn’t figure out a reason why he hadn’t, but couldn’t bring himself to ask.)</p>
<p>He felt exhausted, suddenly; this had really not been how this day had been supposed to go.</p>
<p>When he opened his eyes again, he found KID looking at him - blankly, but not as gravely as he usually would. More like he was wrapped up in his own thoughts and only so happened to look in Conan’s direction.</p>
<p>“So,” Conan said carefully for lack of anything else to say, and KID blinked a few times as he came out of his own head again. “You’re really just gonna… accept this, huh?” He gestured at himself again for good measure.</p>
<p>KID, half-heartedly, shrugged his shoulder. “Honestly, this isn’t even the weirdest shit I’ve had to accept in this past year or so. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to explore this entire thing where you question that witches exist, but are telling me with a straight face that there’s a <em>poison</em> that can revert a teenager back to a child without destroying their brain or, as far as I know, any other vital organs, as you seem quite healthy, all things considered,” he said, matter-of-factly, “but alas, I am way too tired for this. And besides-”</p>
<p>As though to make a point, KID interrupted himself with a yawn.</p>
<p>“-’the detective-guy I’ve been searching for months now turns out to be that annoying brat that keeps trying to ruin my day’ sounds far more reasonable and less hurtful to my poor ego than ‘I get habitually outsmarted by an actual, like, six-year-old’.”</p>
<p>Conan blinked at him, confused, trying to work through the information KID was offering him. Which was… well, a lot, he found, surprisingly. But finally, he settled on, “…you were looking for me? Why?”</p>
<p>“At first? Professional interest,” KID said after a few moments of consideration. “I was curious what kind of person would be smart enough to guide the police - from afar! - well enough to almost cost me the clock tower I worked so hard on saving, but then either not figure out the code I left on it, or decide not to tell the police about it--”</p>
<p>“My name shouldn’t be in the report for that case,” Conan interrupted, unable to hold back from voicing his thoughts. “How did you know that was me?”</p>
<p>KID regarded him for a few moments with an eyebrow raised in irritation, but then continued. “Don’t know about the file, never looked at it,” he said, “but the old man Nakamori kept going on and on about how KID-cases are ‘none of Megure’s business’, and how ‘unprofessional’ it is to ‘let a teenager interfere with investigations like he does’, yadda <em>yadda</em>.” </p>
<p>(KID didn’t pause, but rolled his eyes as he rattled on. Conan couldn’t help but be fascinated; his voice sounded almost exactly, if a bit raspy, like Nakamori-keibu’s as he had apparently quoted the man.)</p>
<p>“So, you know, it’s hard <em>not</em> to get interested if you hear the tales of Genius High School Sleuth Kudou Shinichi every day at breakfast for, like, two weeks straight, especially when he would usually rant about <em>me</em>, you know, <em>the asshole that keeps his job secure</em>.” </p>
<p>A short huff, before KID continued complaining - this time partially switching to a girl’s voice Conan had never heard before. </p>
<p>“And <em>especially</em>-especially if your so-called <em>best friend</em> keeps adding that you’re the same age as the guy, but ‘nowhere near as cool, Kaito, with your boring card tricks and your stupid glitter bombs’, and her ‘you need to start thinking about a serious career, Kaito, magician isn’t a real job’, like you don’t <em>know</em> that, but you can’t exactly tell her that there’s a <em>very real chance</em> you’ll be <em>murdered</em> in the non-metaphorical way before you even graduate high school, all the while you have to smile and nod and pretend like the scrambled eggs she made <em>didn’t</em> taste like burnt leather coated in salt and sadness, and who <em>asked</em> Aoko <em>anyway</em>--”</p>
<p>KID’s mouth snapped shut with a click of his teeth. His eye twitched as he took a deep breath, and then another one.</p>
<p>A few seconds later, with a broad smile plastered on his face that didn’t even pretend it was trying to reach his eyes, he looked up at Conan again.</p>
<p>“So <em>that</em> was highly unprofessional,” KID stated, deceptively calm, “I apologize. I haven’t slept in, like, weeks. Sometimes my… <em>filter</em>” - he gestured vaguely at his head - “has little blackouts, I guess.” </p>
<p>He picked up his glass of juice from the table and drank it up in one big gulp.</p>
<p>Conan couldn’t hold back the snort that broke from him, not even by slapping his hands over his mouth. </p>
<p>Over the rim of his glass, KID eyed him suspiciously - that awful, forced smile completely gone again.</p>
<p>“I know, I’m hilarious, thanks for noticing. I’ll be here all night,” he muttered, not quite keeping in a sigh.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Conan offered mildly; at least he was able to hold back any more laughter. “It’s just- here I was, all this time thinking that the uncatchable Magician Under The Moonlight, Kaitou KID himself, certainly had his life together better than I do.”</p>
<p>KID was quiet for a moment, as he stared into his now empty glass. “I didn’t know you thought that highly of me, Meitantei,” he said, and looked up then. “But I think you and I are a lot more alike than a respectable detective and a lowly criminal would ever seem to be.”</p>
<p>Conan couldn’t really say anything to that. He knew KID was right - what surprised him, though, was that this wasn’t as much of a revelation as it should have been. Quite the opposite - he felt like he’d known this ever since he had come to the realization that Kaitou KID was, behind the monocle and the cocky grin, just a teenager. Just like himself.</p>
<p>After a pause, Conan said, without looking up, “When I realized the clock tower was important to you, personally, it didn’t feel like a mystery anymore, but like I was intruding on something that wasn’t my business. That’s why I didn’t tell the police what it meant.”</p>
<p>KID took a deep breath, but didn’t reply. Instead, he buried his face back into his hands, massaging his forehead as he did.</p>
<p>There was another long stretch of silence, but this time, Conan realized, he didn’t feel uncomfortable about it. In fact, under his tiredness, he felt oddly relieved, if anything. </p>
<p>KID took another deep breath before speaking quietly through his hands. “…there’s actually another reason I tried to find you,” he admitted reluctantly, “A… case I could use help with, if you will.” </p>
<p>Conan perked up, his interest sparked, while KID seemed to sink into himself. He dropped his hands into his lap and stared down at them while they fiddled with the hem of his shirt seemingly on their own accord.</p>
<p>“…what kind of case?” Conan prompted when KID didn’t say anything else; an agreement he would hear KID out, that he’d try to help. </p>
<p>“About two months ago,” KID began, hesitant at first as he glanced at Conan. “a couple was on their way out of Tokyo towards Saitama. Their car crashed off the street before the prefecture’s border, and burned out completely. Both of them died. The police deem it a tragic accident, and the investigation was closed before the victims were even in the ground.”</p>
<p>Conan frowned. “I take it you don’t think this was an accident,” he said, and KID nodded solemnly. </p>
<p>“I think they were killed,” he agreed, “but I have absolutely no evidence other than my gut feeling. Which is why I thought you might be able to get the police’s case file, see if you or I can find anything off about it.”</p>
<p>“Why do you need me for that?” Conan asked, raising an eyebrow at him. KID was fiddling with a loose threat on his shirt; it was, for some reason, irritating Conan more than it should have. “You usually just walk into places like you own them anyway, why is the Police HQ any different?”</p>
<p>KID sighed. His pulling on the loose threat had scrunched up the hem of his shirt, so he half-heartedly flattened it again. “I could, probably,” he said, “but walking into the police station is one thing; the records room has a whole different level of security to it. It’s not Kichiemon’s work, I could get past it, but I, uh.” </p>
<p>He trailed off as the threat snapped from his shirt, and frowned down at it for a moment.</p>
<p>(For that same moment, Conan was worried KID was falling asleep mid-sentence.)</p>
<p>“Um.” KID blinked slowly, but then continued. “It might’ve actually just been an accident, but one of the alternatives is that it was the work of the people that are after my life, too, so, um. I’d rather not risk pulling attention to the case, especially not from <em>me</em>, you know. So I can’t just break in.”</p>
<p>“They probably wouldn’t even notice you,” Conan muttered thoughtfully, and mostly to himself; KID took it as a response anyway, and threw up his hands in frustration about it.</p>
<p>“But what if they <em>did</em>,” he almost yelled, but his voice gave in mid-way through and made him flinch. </p>
<p>Conan frowned at him, once again not knowing what to say. There was quite a bit he <em>wanted</em> to say - about that entire witch-thing, or about how casually KID was bringing up his own death looming around seemingly any corner - but he decided that it would, right now, not get him anywhere. Not while KID was so beside himself. </p>
<p>With a sigh, KID lowered his arms again, and dropped his head into his hands. “Look, Meitantei, I’m tired,” he muttered, like Conan couldn’t see that himself, and tried to clear his throat to get his voice back, “I’m not going to throw you out; there’s a spare bed you can have. But I can’t-- I need sleep.”</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Conan replied, shaking his head to himself. “I’ll leave; there are at least two people who know I’m here right now, and who probably think you’ve murdered me if I don’t come back.”</p>
<p>For a moment, KID looked up at him with his eyebrows knit together behind his hands. </p>
<p>“Why would I do that now, and in my own apartment? I know where you <em>live</em>,” he said, and he seemed upset of all things. “What’s with people assuming I’ll turn into an idiot when I inevitably snap and become a psychopath. Unbelievable.”</p>
<p>He shook his head with a disappointed sigh. </p>
<p>“<em>When</em>, huh?” Conan offered, mildly amused, and KID merely gave a half-hearted, non-committing hum.</p>
<p>As he climbed off the couch to follow up on his promise to leave, Conan realized that he felt something akin to sympathy for KID. Maybe he’d been too quick to judge him after all. </p>
<p>Still, for a moment, a part of his brain wondered whether he’d end up regretting it, when he said, “Hey, listen. I’ll see what I can do about your case, but I can’t promise they’ll let me look at the files. Takagi-keiji can be surprisingly strict sometimes.”</p>
<p>KID finally lifted his head again, and just blinked at Conan for a moment. He cleared his throat, apparently just for the sake of it, and sat up enough to grab the notebook that was lying on the table in front of him. As he flipped through it, Conan caught glimpses of some of the drawings in it - they looked to be much more refined than what the children in his class would draw, and seemed to be mostly of characters from Kamen Yaiba.</p>
<p>KID stopped on an empty page, made sure it really was empty on both sides, and carefully pulled it out of the notebook. </p>
<p>He scribbled something down with one of Kenichi’s pencils. “Here,” he muttered, before holding the paper out for Conan to take. It had a phone number, an email-address, a handful of kanji, and what looked to be a police’s file number on it. “It’s my contact, if something comes up, and the case. The victim’s names read as Yagi, Yamato and Rinda. If there’s something else you need, let me know.”</p>
<p>Conan regarded the paper for some moments, before folding it twice and putting it in his pocket. “That should be fine, for now,” he said, and KID nodded his head. </p>
<p>As he turned away, he heard KID take another deep breath, before he added, quieter than before and in that same tone he had used when he had come to pick Kenichi up from school, “Thanks, Meitantei.”</p>
<p>“…no problem,” Conan replied simply, and made to leave the apartment.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fun fact: This chapter was absolutely not planned originally. It was going to be the first, like, quarter of the next one, and then it kind of…… got away from me. (Turns out writing is much easier when you don’t have to make two of the world’s most stubborn people talk to one another.)<br/>So yeah, yay. I’m hoping I can follow up with the next one quite soon, too.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Conan stepped out of the apartment building KID lived in, a deep sigh broke over his lips.</p>
<p>This day was a <em>disaster</em>.</p>
<p>His head hurt, he was exhausted, and he had more questions now than he'd had before he had talked to KID. Which felt oddly in-character for KID in general, he realized, leaving more mystery than answers wherever he was.</p>
<p>(At least <em>that</em> was something Conan could still rely on.)</p>
<p>Tired as he was, Conan decided to go back to Agasa’s house right away, so he put down his skateboard and idly pushed himself forward. Briefly he thought about calling Takagi right away to ask about that police file, but as he pulled his phone from his pocket and went to scroll through his numbers, he found that it was almost 2 am.</p>
<p>Probably not the best time to ask for a favor he wasn’t owed. </p>
<p>So he made to put his phone away again - and it promptly began vibrating. In his surprise, he managed just barely not to drop it to the ground.</p>
<p>On the screen, the caller ID brightly said <em>Kudou Yukiko</em>.</p>
<p>Conan took a deep breath, and for a moment thought about ignoring her. But then again - this was as good a time as any. The day couldn’t get any worse anymore.</p>
<p>He pressed the <em>Accept Call</em> button.</p>
<p>“Shin-chan!” his mother chirped immediately, much too cheery for his tastes and the time of day, followed by something that sounded like she fell back into the cushions of a sofa or an armchair.</p>
<p>“Mom,” Conan replied flatly by way of greeting.</p>
<p>“Isn’t it the middle of the night in Japan right now?”</p>
<p>Conan’s eye twitched in irritation. </p>
<p>(There it was, the regret.)</p>
<p>“<em>You</em> are the one who called <em>me</em>,” he said, at least somewhat trying not to seem too upset.</p>
<p>“Yes, and I need to apologize for the delay,” Yukiko relented, not sounding sorry at all, “I was very busy when you called last week, and then I forgot to call back. Sorry, Shin-chan~”</p>
<p>Conan sighed. “It’s fine,” he muttered, shaking his head to himself. It wasn’t like he had made any particular effort to reach is parents; he had called his mother exactly once, and she hadn’t answered, and that had been that.</p>
<p>“So, what did you want to talk about? You never call just to chat,” Yukiko asked then, when Conan didn’t say anything else, and she sounded overly upset about it in that unnecessarily dramatic way she always complained about things in she had no right to actually complain about. She’d used that ever since Conan could remember. </p>
<p>(He’d also disliked it ever since he could remember.)</p>
<p>He decided not to mention that his parents had never cared to contact him <em>just to chat</em> either in these past four years he’d been living by himself.</p>
<p>Instead, he hummed in agreement. “I wanted to ask about Kuroba Touichi - that famous magician that died a while ago? You knew him, right?”</p>
<p>Yukiko was quiet for several seconds. Conan frowned at her hesitation, and then at his phone to make sure the connection hadn’t broken up.</p>
<p>“We did,” she said, then, simply, and not sounding surprised in the slightest. She did, however, sound a bit further away now; she had put the phone on speaker. Conan figured this meant his father was around, too. “What about him?”</p>
<p>“Did he have a son about my age?” Conan asked - and Yukiko replied so quickly this time, it felt oddly like she had already known what he was going to ask.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she said, more enthusiastic now. “He’s just a few weeks younger than you, actually. His name is Kaito.”</p>
<p>Conan’s brows knit together. “Have I ever met him before?”</p>
<p>“I think so?” Yukiko seemed to think for a moment, or maybe she was looking at Yuusaku for help. “Yes, actually, you did; we were in Las Vegas, maybe? But you must’ve been, what? Three or four years old? You probably don’t remember.”</p>
<p>Conan huffed, impatient. “Did <em>he</em> tell you to tell me that?”, he brought out, barely keeping himself from yelling; this was <em>ridiculous</em>.</p>
<p>(His headache was not happy about his anger.)</p>
<p>“…eh? Who?”</p>
<p>“Kaitou KID,” Conan barked back. “Did he tell you what to say so your story would match what he told me? I can’t <em>believe</em> you would--“</p>
<p>“Shinichi.” His father. Conan stopped, his tired rant about his disappointment in his parents breaking off before it even started.</p>
<p>(Surprisingly, in a fleeting thought that he didn’t care to hold onto, he realized he was more disappointed in KID than in his parents, anyway.)</p>
<p>“Shinichi, has it occurred to you that sometimes, the stories different people tell match because they happen to be <em>true</em>?”</p>
<p>“But- You knew <em>exactly</em> what I was going to ask! How, if you haven’t been told!”</p>
<p>“We figured,” Yuusaku replied calmly, before Yukiko butted in again.</p>
<p>“Yes, because Chikage-chan - you know, Touichi’s wife - has asked us for help about the kid she adopted - something-ichi I think?” (“Kenichi,” Yuusaku told her, and Yukiko made a little “ah!” sound before she continued.) “They put him in your class, yes?” she explained. “So, you know. It’s not all that surprising you would ask about the Kurobas now.”</p>
<p>Conan huffed; he wanted to complain, but there wasn’t really anything he could complain <em>about</em>. Everything his parents said fit perfectly with what KID had either told or implied to him, and, annoyingly enough, he knew that he could believe his parents, at least. </p>
<p>Which meant that he, apparently, would have to start believing KID, too.</p>
<p>“Who did you tell her I am?” Conan asked, then, trying his best to calm down, “Does she think I’m your second son, too, like your friends in Gunma?” </p>
<p>“What? Oh, no.” Yukiko chuckled to herself. “She knows who you are.”</p>
<p>Conan’s skateboard rolled on without him as he missed his step and stumbled off it. </p>
<p>“<em>What!?</em>” he brought out in surprise, barely stopping himself from smashing his face against the garden wall lining the street. </p>
<p>(Had he not been so distracted, he would’ve been amazed that he hadn’t dropped his phone.)</p>
<p>“There’s no need to worry,” Yuusaku replied, calm as ever. “Chikage-san is very good at keeping secrets.”</p>
<p>“So what!” Conan yelled back, unwilling to just accept his father’s words. “I don’t even <em>know</em> her! You can’t just walk around telling people about me!”</p>
<p>In the house behind him, a light was turned on. For a moment, Conan stared at the now bright window, but then realized where - and, more importantly, <em>when</em> - he was. So instead of waiting for someone to appear and probably complain about how loud he was being, he hurried after his skateboard that had come to a stop in the middle of the street a little ahead. </p>
<p>“We didn’t,” Yuusaku continued after a few moments, like he had been waiting for Conan to decide whether he would rant or not. “She figured it out by herself, actually.”</p>
<p>“And you didn’t bother to at least try and correct her.”</p>
<p>“There was no reason to,” Yukiko said, and Conan knew exactly what kind of face she was making. He could very much see her little frown before him, completely lacking understanding as to why Conan was so upset with them. He’d seen it a lot in his life.</p>
<p>“Shinichi,” Yuusaku said again before Conan could complain any further, and Conan loathed the condescending tone he kept saying just his name in. “We’ve known Chikage-san for the better part of two decades now, and we knew Touichi for even longer. She is one of the most trustworthy people we know.” And then, he added, pointedly, “And so is her son. No matter how little you think of him.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, right,” Conan muttered, but he knew there was no use in talking back. This was his father, after all. The same man that was, whenever he was around, somehow, at least two steps ahead of him in any given mystery they were possibly dealing with.</p>
<p>(Conan admired and hated him for it in equal measures.)</p>
<p>“Shin-chan-“ Yukiko began, no doubt about to try and tell him, too, in some other convoluted way, how wrong he was to distrust KID, but Conan decided to cut her off. </p>
<p>“I’m off to bed,” he said a little louder than necessary, not listening to anything she would say. “Good night.”</p>
<p>With that, Conan hung up. </p>
<p>(And if he made to throw his phone at the nearest wall before thinking better of it, and merely stuffed it back into his pocket with a little more force than necessary instead, there was no one around to see him.) </p>
<p>He’d been wrong. The day hadn’t been at its worst yet. </p>
<p>And somehow, seeing the lights still on in Professor Agasa’s house when he finally got back, he felt like it was still not over.</p>
<p>“Shinichi!” Agasa called before Conan had even closed the front door behind himself.</p>
<p>(He had ever been more annoyed of hearing his own name before.)</p>
<p>A moment later, Agasa was standing in front of him with his arms sternly crossed in front of his chest. Past him, Conan could see Haibara sitting by the counter, typing away on her laptop, a mug with a tea egg hanging in it next to her. </p>
<p>“You look terrible,” the professor said then, his sternness making way for barely concealed worry. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”</p>
<p>Conan, once again, sighed deeply. “Just tired,” he replied, and it wasn’t even too big of a lie.</p>
<p>Agasa didn’t seem satisfied with that, but Conan didn’t spare him much of a glance - he toed his shoes off, set down his skateboard, and walked past him to join Haibara.</p>
<p>“You didn’t have to stay up,” he said, climbing onto one of the chairs next to her. </p>
<p>“What makes you think I stayed up for you?” Haibara asked back over the rim of her mug, an eyebrow raised as she took a sip. The tea she was drinking smelled vaguely of lavender. </p>
<p>Agasa joined them on the other side of the counter, where he turned the electric kettle on. “So,” he began, and picked up another mug from next to the sink. “Did you get the answers you were looking for? You’ve been gone for quite a while.”</p>
<p>With a groan, Conan buried his face in his hands. Agasa’s brows furrowed in concern.</p>
<p>“Some,” Conan muttered past his fingers. “But plenty new questions have arisen.”</p>
<p>He then remembered the piece of paper in his pocket, and looked up at Haibara again. “Speaking of - could you look something up for me?”</p>
<p>Haibara rolled her eyes. “I already looked Kuroba up, if that’s what you want,” she said, drank up the last of her tea, and turned her laptop towards Conan. From the screen, a picture of Kuroba Kaito looked back at him; it looked to be an official school photo, maybe, but the uniform he was wearing wasn’t of Teitan High. </p>
<p>“He’s legit, as far as I can tell,” Haibara went on, then, “Name, age, schools he went to, it all fits together with what he told us. Born and raised in Ekoda until he moved to Beika two weeks ago. He’s known for being a class clown and chronically skips school and club activities, but scores top marks in every test he takes, be it theoretical or practical.” She shrugged her shoulders. “The most suspicious thing I could find - apart from his perfect grades - is that his father died right around the time Kaitou KID disappeared about eight years ago. My guess is that his father was KID until then, and Kuroba inherited the title from him.”</p>
<p>Conan didn’t dare to ask how Haibara had found all of this out, or how much time she had spent on it. Instead, he just stared at her for several seconds, trying to comprehend the information he had just been handed. </p>
<p>“That… wasn’t actually what I was going to ask,” he finally replied.</p>
<p>Haibara huffed, annoyed. </p>
<p>Conan quickly pulled the paper from his pocket and held it out to her. “Here,” he said, “can you see if you can find anything out about these people?”</p>
<p>Haibara glared at him for several moments, but took the paper from him still.</p>
<p>On the other side of the counter, the electric kettle clicked. Agasa filled Haibara’s mug back up, and prepared another tea for Conan. </p>
<p>As he set their mugs down, he, too, glanced at the piece of paper as Haibara set it down next to the laptop and started typing.</p>
<p>“Is that what I think it is?” he asked, turning to Conan. “Do you just casually have Kaitou KID’s contact info now?”</p>
<p>Conan half-heartedly shrugged his shoulders. “I also casually know his civilian identity and where he lives, but I have no actual evidence that he <em>is</em> Kaitou KID other than him admitting it to me.”</p>
<p>He didn’t care to mention that very much the same was true in reverse, too. Neither Haibara nor Agasa needed to know about him sharing his own secret identity with KID, even if it had been kind of an accident.</p>
<p>(If <em>he blurted it out in a fit of impatience</em> could, indeed, be counted as an accident.)</p>
<p>“Who are these people, then?” Haibara asked, waving the paper at Conan for good measure without looking at him.</p>
<p>“I don’t actually know,” Conan admitted. “They’re apparently victims in a car accident a little bit ago, but they might’ve had connections to someone who’s trying to kill KID.”</p>
<p>Haibara hummed to herself, clicking away on her laptop. Agasa, however, seemed upset about Conan’s barely-there explanation.</p>
<p>“Isn’t he your age?” he asked, and Conan looked up at him. </p>
<p>“He’s in my and Ran’s class, and mom says he’s barely younger than me, yes,” he replied, “Why?” </p>
<p>Agasa threw his hands up in frustration.</p>
<p>“He’s upset how many people out there are willing to hurt, or even kill, children, as he calls us,” Haibara supplied for the professor, and Conan huffed out a small laugh. </p>
<p>“You’re not even of full age yet!” Agasa defended himself. “You can’t blame me for being upset about that.”</p>
<p>“If it’s any condolence,” Conan offered, “I’m pretty sure most people don’t actually know that Kaitou KID is just a teenager. I certainly didn’t know when I first met him.”</p>
<p>Agasa huffed, but didn’t say anything else. After all, no one was actually disagreeing with him; Conan, for his part, was simply long since past being surprised how many truly horrible people there were.</p>
<p>A window popped up on Haibara’s laptop then, and she let out a little hum. The window contained two official-looking photos similar to KID’s earlier, and a bit of text beneath them. </p>
<p>“Yagi Yamato,” Haibara read for them, “an office worker. Yagi Rinda, formerly Tanaka, also an office worker, same company, different department. They met at work, got married eight years ago, and lived in-- ah. Hm.” She frowned. “They lived in Ekoda, three houses down from Kuroba.”</p>
<p>Conan perked up at that. “He didn’t tell me about that,” he said, looking at the laptop screen and the pictures provided. They had looked nice, he had to admit. Nice, and perfectly ordinary.</p>
<p>And vaguely familiar.</p>
<p>“Maybe he didn’t know?” Haibara offered. Conan hummed non-committing. </p>
<p>“Or maybe he did, and that’s exactly why he wants to look into the case,” he said with a shrug.</p>
<p>He couldn’t take his eyes off the picture of Yagi Rinda. She looked young in it, maybe in her twenties. Her long black hair disappeared from view behind her shoulders, and with her round face, her bright green eyes, and the soft smile she wore, she looked very calm and kind.</p>
<p>“Why do I feel like I’ve seen her before?” Conan muttered to himself. </p>
<p>Haibara turned to him in surprise. “You, too?” she asked. “I can’t place how, but she looks familiar, right?”</p>
<p>Conan looked back at her, equally as confused about this discovery. He knew that he and Haibara were thinking the same thing, too, but it was Agasa who actually said it.</p>
<p>“So were they part of the people that are after you two?” he asked, quietly, as though he was suddenly trying to make sure only the two in front of him could hear what he said. “Are they after KID, too? Why?”</p>
<p>“Who knows,” Conan replied.</p>
<p>“Maybe they wanted to recruit him, actually,” Haibara offered with a raised eyebrow. “He <em>does</em> have a skillset that would be useful to any criminal organization. And if he declined, it might’ve become some kind of ‘if we can’t have him, no one can’-situation.”</p>
<p>Conan shook his head. “KID said these two” - he gestured at Haibara’s laptop - “might’ve been <em>killed</em> by them,” he countered. “Why would they kill their own people, especially if they’re the ones close to KID?”</p>
<p>“Maybe they tried to get out?” Haibara said into her mug of fresh tea. “You know how they feel about traitors.”</p>
<p>Conan sighed - this was frustrating him. He couldn’t find any obvious sense, no matter which way he turned the pieces, and it didn’t help him to figure out where he had seen the woman before, if he even <em>had</em> seen her before.</p>
<p>“Why did he give you these names in the first place?” Agasa asked, then, taking another look at the piece of paper that was innocently sitting on the counter.</p>
<p>“So I can get him the police file on their deaths,” Conan replied simply, and Agasa all but startled.</p>
<p>“What? Shinichi, you can’t--“</p>
<p>“No, I will, professor,” Conan cut him off immediately, shutting him up with a pointed look. “This is something KID’s life might be in danger over. I know what you think of him, but if I can help, I will. Even him.”</p>
<p>Agasa looked like he was going to protest, but he thought better of it. It wasn’t like Conan would let this go either way. Especially not now - knowing what he did and, more importantly, didn’t know.</p>
<p>“Well,” Haibara said then, into the quiet that spread between them. She closed her laptop with a click, picked it up and with her mug in her other hand, climbed off her chair. “This was fun, but I’m going to bed.”</p>
<p>Agasa sighed, but nodded his head all the same. “That’s probably for the best,” he said, and then turned to Conan. “You should get some rest too, Shinichi. At least try and get some sleep.”</p>
<p>Conan, admittedly, couldn’t have agreed more.</p>
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